Strange Apprentice
by texaswookie
Summary: Marvel/HP cross. Fudge expells Harry Potter, so he takes his life into his own hands and heads elsewhere to learn magic under Dr. Strange, Sorcerer Supreme. After he learns he returns to a war infested United Kingdom and kicks butt. Some DD bashing.
1. Decisions

HP is a product of JKR and all the other characters read about belong to Marvel comics (or Disney if you want to get real technical).

Yet another backburner creation given life. 

* * *

><p>Harry Potter sighed as he slumped into the chair and watched the fire with blank eyes. He still had trouble believing that Fudge and the members of the Wizengamot had actually expelled him. It was still hard to believe and he had been there although he had to admit that Dumbledore had actually seemed more shocked than he had been when Fudge had grinned down on them as he snapped his phoenix core wand. All of the kids had been suitably outraged on his behalf that however hadn't stopped them from preparing themselves for returning to Hogwarts though he thought bitterly.<p>

Sirius walked into the room and sat down at a nearby chair and smiled sadly at his godson. The escapee was running through a variety of emotions some of which he was ashamed to admit feeling. He was sad and angry that James and Lily's child was being kept out of Hogwarts, and yet he was glad too. Because it meant that he could spend time with the boy and protect him like he hadn't been able to do so far. "Hey pup," he greeted, "you alright," he questioned.

"Just wondering," Harry replied as his green eyes stared into the fire.

"And what could you be wondering about so deeply pup?" Sirius questioned with interest.

"Why do we even bother?" Harry questioned his godfather finally turning to look at the dark haired man. "You're a wanted criminal for killing someone that's still alive, Remus is hated because of what he is, and then there's me and what they think of me." He said with a bitterness that no one should have.

Sirius nodded in understanding of what the boy was asking. "We do what we have to because it's the right thing to do." He explained to the angry and confused teenager before him.

"And if we told them to just leave us alone?" Harry questioned with curiosity. "What if we just packed our bags grabbed Remus and left? The Ministry obviously doesn't want us around, and the only person that Voldemort is actually scared of is Dumbledore, so why are we killing ourselves over all of this? It's not like I stand a chance against him, the few times I've run into him I've been lucky that he was weakened and underestimated me."

"So what are you thinking of pup?" Sirius grumbled at the boy. "I can't just leave here and walk around town like nothing's happened, I happen to be wanted remember?"

"Why not," Harry questioned stubbornly, "why can't we just leave England and settle down someplace nice and quiet?"

Sirius opened his mouth to respond but couldn't come up with a decent answer for the raven headed teen. "What about your friends though?" He finally managed to croak out. When he was growing up he could never even consider running out on his friends.

Harry flinched at this. "I want to be with them Sirius, I really do, but they're going to Hogwarts and I'm stuck in here with you inside this creepy old house. I would rather go back to Hogwarts but I can't. I need to find another way than the one I've been using though."

Sirius nodded his head in acceptance, he would do what Harry needed, and Harry didn't need to be trapped in this house. "Alright pup, we'll do it, let me talk to Mooney and we'll get out of here in a few days. Keep it under your hat though, I want to do this without anyone making a fuss." Inside he was wondering how he was going to sneak Harry away from the house where not only was the infamous Mad-Eye-Moody constantly coming over, but also the overprotective mother hen Molly Weasley. He wasn't really sure which of the two would actually be more difficult to slip past the more he thought about it.

In the end it had been disturbingly easy to get out for the group. Remus had taken some convincing, but after asking what James and Lily would have wanted for Harry the werewolf had conceded in helping with the hair brained scheme that his friend had managed to come up with.

They had left fifteen minutes after the Order had left for the train station. Harry had packed his trunk under the excuse that it would make it easier for Ron to find his own things getting nods of approval from Mrs. Weasley and Hermione. Before they walked out the doors of Black Manor his friends had both stopped and given him comforting hugs before they had been bustled out the doors by Mrs. Weasley and Mad-Eye Moody.

Once those two were gone it was rather simple for the two Marauders to disable Tonks and Hestia. The Marauders had looked down at the stunned pair of women with sad smiles before they gathered their things together and easily slipped out the doors. Once they were on the porch Sirius turned into Padfoot, while Remus canceled the various tracking charms on Harry. They had hailed the Knight bus to take them to the Chunnel, and once in France they had moved by muggle methods to Spain, where Remus had acquired tickets on a ship that would take them to the States.

None of the members of the Order having wanted to be around the emotional teenager that was Harry had managed to delay returning to headquarters since they had other things to do. Neither Dumbledore nor McGonagall were there either, as they were busy doing last minute preparations for the start of a new term. Because of this no one noticed the fact that Harry, or the remaining Marauders were gone and that the guards were unconscious. Not until a grocery laden Mrs. Weasley barged into the house, and dropped a bag of flour over the Auror and Hit Witch that is. It was nearly an hour later, that the group found a note from the group explaining that they couldn't remain and fight for people where they were not wanted. They then had to wait until after the Hogwarts opening feast before they could get Dumbledore, McGonagall, and Snape to join them and explain everything that they knew.

Dumbledore had returned to his offices to inspect his various devices, only to see that all the ones showing where Harry was had been disabled though the health ones were still in working condition. He could tell that Harry was alive and healthy, but he couldn't tell where the young man was currently hiding. This meant that the Marauders had found all of his spells or that they had moved far beyond their range. He would have to station people at Diagon Ally, Hogsmeade, and any other place that the Marauders might try and run to. Ever since Fudge had decided to make this power play things had not gone as he had hoped. He had planned on using this school year as an excuse to strengthen the boy's loyalty to him by allowing Umbridge into his school and allow her to persecute Harry and a few others. Because of the ruling though, that plan was no longer useable, and he would need another plan. Because of Fudge, he couldn't even slowly wear the boy's mental defenses away because they weren't going to be where anyone could deal with them. He had thought that by allowing Harry to study the magical theory and potions that he would manage to stay on his good side. By disappearing like he had though, he had made things much more difficult. The loss of the brother wand to Voldemort's wand was also a harsh blow to their side. He sincerely doubted that Fawkes was going to be giving up another feather for a wand anytime soon. A check of other items had shown that the boy had also managed to reacquire his vault key from Mrs. Weasley a day or two ago. He wasn't sure that this could get much worse. Without Harry there was much that they now were unable to do. The old wizard was going to be forced to wait and see what the next move of the various players in the game were so that he could determine his next move in how to deal with them. There was now Harry and the Marauders, Voldemort, and the Ministry in this game for the future of the British Wizarding World. He idly wondered who would crack under the pressure first. He personally bet that it was the Ministry that folded first. 

* * *

><p>Remus, Harry and Padfoot watched from the deck of the ship as they saw the country that they were steadily approaching. A statue of a woman holding a torch loomed into their vision. "The Statue of Liberty," Remus explained to Harry and Padfoot. "It has a very interesting history, I wish we had the time right now to see it but we have other things to do instead. The two of you need to either swim or fly off the boat before customs gets here. I happen to have a passport and travel papers the two of you don't."<p>

The two illegals nodded and Padfoot quietly slipped into the water and began to head for shore. Harry meanwhile draped his cloak, mounted his broom and began flying near the ship, but high enough over the water that he would not make any ripples on the water. Harry then listened, as first the captain and then Remus dealt with the inspector. After they were done Remus and the Captain exchanged some money and Remus gestured for the unseen Harry to rejoin him on the deck.

"Well that was fun," Remus said with a weak grin as the teen reappeared next to his protector. The werewolf obviously disliked the tricks and shady deals that were required of them. For Harry though, he was willing to do whatever it took to keep him safe.

The pair waited as the ship docked, and then made their way down a busy street and found themselves looking around in shock and awe at tall of the things around them. They stopped in a Subway restaurant, and ordered some sandwiches. The two then headed out to meet with Sirius at the assigned place. It was a small out of the way park that they met at and sat down to eat. They would have to decide on their next move, but for the moment they were getting some food and reveling in the fact that they had actually managed to get here without getting caught. They had managed to slip out of England, and into the States without any major problems. Not only that, but they had managed to do it without Dumbledore, the Ministry, or Voldemort being aware before it was too late for them to do anything. The group had nearly finished their meal when everything seemed to blow up in their faces though.

Several explosions happened as a creature made of rock and a man hovering on a flying carpet began tearing through the area. "Fear me you foolish Americans!" The man shouted loudly. "Gaze upon me and fear the Arabian Mystic!" He shouted as he waved his hands and the sand and gravel at a nearby playground turned into small tornado's until they formed into smaller creatures.

"Golems!" Remus said in surprise as he drew his wand.

"Just what we don't need." Sirius grumbled, as he held his own wand at the ready. The two men had quickly placed Harry in between them as they prepared themselves for the creatures if they decided to attack them. The creatures snarled at them and raised their hands and fired small fragments of sand and rock at the group. Remus created a shield while Sirius cast a cushioning charm that destroyed most of the destructive power of the attacks.

Harry grabbed a fallen stick and held it at the ready, unsure if this was going to be of any real help against what they were facing. 'Still, it was better than nothing.' He thought to himself as he nervously readied himself for whatever it was that happened next. Secretly he was wishing for his wand or the twins and some bludgers.

"Remus, try that decay spell that you used on Lucius's fancy family statue that he had delivered to school in 3rd year." Sirius said grimly as he got his wand in the ready position.

"Are you sure about that Sirius? That spell takes several moments to cast." Remus warned his friend.

"I'll do my best to cover you." The dark haired wizard returned, as he fired several banishing charms to send another attack away from them. The rocks that struck the golems were actually absorbed back into the bodies of the creatures. Remus nodded and began muttering and waving his wand around, he then sent a final jab at one of the creatures and they watched as the various rocks that made the creature up cracked and crumbled making the creature wobble around. The three cheered as the creature fell, only to watch in surprise and disbelief as it rebuilt itself.

"So much for that idea." Harry said, he then turned to Remus. "Can you break it apart again and then transfigure the parts into something else? It looks like they need rocks and sand to move around."

The two wizards shrugged and tried the young man's idea and flung several curses at the creatures. Sirius waved his wand at a nearby water fountain and watched as it spewed water at the creature making it seem to melt as the sand and dirt turned to mud. "Now," Sirius commanded and the two waved their wands and the sand shifted into a giant mirror. The rock creature looked at its ally for a moment before it began spewing even more rock attacks at the three.

"This is getting ridiculous!" Remus complained, as he batted aside several rocks Sirius had transfigured into flowers while trying to hit the creature. His attacks appeared to have little effect on the creature though, as if it was gaining an immunity to their magic. The creature was now amongst them, and grabbed both wizards by their wand arms and both men cried in pain as the vice like grip held them.

"Harry, get out of here." Sirius ordered through gritted teeth, as he battered uselessly against the stone that was holding him in an ever tightening grip.

"And so fall all enemies of the Arabian Mystic." The man upon the carpet said smugly from where he had watched the short battle between his golems and the two wizards.

He then turned toward his giant Golem. "Come my pet, we will destroy this city and all its inhabitants and with the power of the fallen souls we capture we shall make a new world."

"I think not." A new voice said grimly, as a magical bolt erupted from above them and struck the giant Golem knocking it back.

"Who dares to challenge the Arabian Mystic." The man spat turning to look toward the sky.

A man dressed in dark pants and boots, a blue tunic, a yellow sash, and a red cape with gold trim on it was there to face him. The man was a tall white man, with a thin mustache, and dark hair with a large white streak on either side. "I do, I am Doctor Strange and I am here to stop you."

"Hah, the infamous American with a few parlor tricks." The Arabian Mystic shot back at him. "I have heard of you, and know that you are useless unless you have your toys. You are not a true magic users like myself, who creates or enchants their weapons." The Arabian Mystic boasted.

"We shall see who is truly the greater mystic then." Dr. Strange said, as they began trading shots with each other. If the wizards had been watching they would have been shocked to note that the pair were battling without wands and were throwing magical energy at each other.

Harry using his stick was slamming it uselessly into the side of the creature that was holding the last true links to his family.

"It's no use pup, nothing is going make this thing let us go." Sirius grunted to the boy.

"Harry you need to get out of here while you can." Remus said. "Find someplace safe or return to England. It's your choice, but live your life the way you want to." The werewolf advised the boy.

"No," Harry shouted back at them. "I am not losing you two now that I got you." Harry's eyes sparked with raw magical power and he slammed his hands into the golem and it shattered. The force of the spell flew through the creature holding the Marauders and slammed into the giant Golem behind it.

The Arabian Mystic and Dr. Strange both stopped their battle as they watched the two golems feel the effects from the attack. One was shattered, and the other was cracked along the waist. "No, this cannot be happening!" The Arabian Mystic cried out in shock and anger, as he turned to see his damaged creature.

"But it has." Dr. Strange said as he fired a bolt of mystic energy at the other magic user. "Those who use the souls of others must be prepared to pay the price." The Arabian Mystic cried out in pain, as the bolt burned him and he fell weakly onto his magic carpet. Turning Dr. Strange then fired a large bolt of magical power towards the giant Golem which wavered for a moment before shattering leaving a cloud of dust. The Sorcerer Supreme slowly lowered himself to the ground and observed those that had helped him. Two trained wand magic users and a boy with so much potential were all holding each other in relief over surviving the fight.

"Well fought my friends." Dr. Strange said cordially to the group. "Had those creatures managed to wander the streets they would likely have killed many and added to his power. Because of your stopping them you gave me the chance to stop him and you even damaged his soul container that was his giant Golem." He added.

"A dangerous task." Remus said, as he examined the remains from where he was sitting. "A type of dark magic that used Golems, Soul Magic, and Power Containment. Seperat they are each dangerous fields of magic, combined they are a deadly type of magic. I remember talking to a wizard about similar such pieces of magical theory before when I was in France. I never thought anyone would actually have it in them to kill the people required to keep such things going though."

"Yes, it is a shame that someone would have so little regard for life." Dr. Strange said in agreement. "He planned to use the power from those souls to change the world so that magic became the primary used method in the world again with science falling by the wayside, with him as a ruler of the world." He eyed the group over and watched as the two men healed each other with their wands while the boy watched them and him cautiously. "I wish that I had more time to talk with you, but perhaps you can come to my house later. I wish I could take you there, but I must first deal with this magic user who thought himself able to change the very laws of life to suite his own selfish wants and desires." He handed Sirius a piece of paper with his address. "We have much we can talk about I believe. Come to me when you are ready to talk. The boy has much potential, bring him, for I have much to discuss with him."

The wizard nodded his head as he glanced down at the paper and saw an address. The group was distracted as they saw the man create a shimmering portal that sucked the dark magic user his flying carpet and a majority of the giant golem away. Dr. Strange gave a wave to the group his eyes resting on Harry for a moment before he stepped into the portal and disappeared. "Okay, let's get out of here before the Yank version of the Aurors and Obliviators show up and try to arrest me, or blame for this mess." Sirius told the others ushering them on.


	2. Choices

As usual nothing here belongs to me.

I would like to thank and recognize sekmarc for agreeing to do beta work on this.

* * *

><p>Later that day, the group found themselves standing before a house in Greenwich Village that, in its own way, reminded the group of the headquarters of the Order. Like the other house there was an almost imperious feeling to the building, but whereas the Ancestral Black family house was a place of darkness this house was a place not of dark or light but seemed to say 'power' without going one way or the other. In this way, the three story building was much like Hogwarts. Sirius nodded a greeting to the man that opened the door for them. The dark haired wizard was still confused as to why Harry had been invited to this place. Sure he knew that the wizard or whatever that had saved their lives probably just wanted to make sure that they were all right after that crazy attack, but the protective godfather in him had noticed the interest that their savior had shown in the boy. Sirius shook off his musings and turned toward the man answering the door who led them into the house.<p>

"May I get you something?" The oriental man questioned the group.

"No thank you," Remus said nervously as he eyed all of the various ritualistic items that were lying about the house.

The man nodded as he finally took them into a library. "I shall leave you here then. The Master should be here shortly after he is done with some other matters in the spirit realm."

"Thanks," Harry said, as his eyes roved around the room with interest.

As soon as the doors were shut Sirius followed his example and began looking at all of the things in the room while Remus rolled his eyes in amusement at the pair's curiosity. "Hey Moony look at this," Sirius said pointing to an object on a table.

The werewolf got up to see what it was that his friend had found and felt his eyes bug out when he saw what his friend was pointing at. "Amazing, it's an animus orb." The werewolf said as he looked at the orb that was held by an animal claw with animalistic designs drawn all over the arm to represent the various animals kingdoms.

"A what?" Harry questioned, as he joined his father's friends to look at the orb.

"An Animus Orb, or sometimes referred to as the Animus Revealer," Remus explained to the teen. "They're extremely rare, and are used to help you find your inner beast so that you know what you're inner animal is and what you might transform into for the animagus transformations."

"Amongst other things, yes it does," Dr. Strange said as he entered the room. "It also allows you to do many other things."

"Really like what?" an interested Remus questioned.

"For starters it helps one focus animal based rituals, find your spirit guardian, and how to transform into numerous other animals besides just your inner animal." Dr. Strange explained to the group of Englishmen.

"What kind of rituals?" Harry questioned, as he eyed the animus orb in awe. For such a small item it seemed to have a lot of potential power within it.

Dr. Strange smiled softly at the boy, as he held the orb up so that all could see it. "Rituals that can give a person animal-like abilities, like the speed of a cheetah, the strength of a gorilla, the sight of a bird, the agility of a monkey, or even become the avatar for a certain type of animal. I never did like those types of spells myself, but there are those who specialize in that branch of magic."

"Then why do you have it?" Harry said before clamping his mouth shut in embarrassment.

Dr. Strange smiled at this. "Because I occasionally use it to see a person's inner beast, it also doesn't require near the amount of control or power that the eye Agamotto does." He added, tapping on the large golden item that was attached to his cloak.

"I didn't know they could do all that," Sirius said looking at the orb with a renewed interest.

"Yes, however that is not what I wished to talk to you about," Strange said as he returned the orb to its resting place.

"And what did you want to talk about?" Remus questioned warily.

"The boy actually," Strange said, nodding toward the green eyed boy between the men. "There are many things that I wish to talk to him about." He reached into a pocket and withdrew a large green gem. "This is the Soul Gem, and it has detected a shard of a soul residing within your scar. I wish to remove the blemish from your body."

Harry glanced at Remus and Sirius who looked uneasy at the idea, but nodded their heads in agreement with the request.

"You had best lie down, as there is no telling what all may happen while doing this." The boy nodded as he lay on the couch, and Dr. Strange leaned over him.

The man held the stone in his hand while waving his hand over the scar. A few moments later a small black and deformed creature was visible to all of them. It tried to grab onto Harry, but some glowing force grabbed the thing away from the teen, and pulled towards the gem. The creature gave out a screech before it was sucked into the gem. There was a cry throughout the house, and suddenly the image of a ring, locket, cup, and snake appeared. The items reformed into copies of the creature before they too were absorbed by the gem the items falling down lifelessly to the ground, while Remus and Sirius each cast a cutting charm at the snake.

Strange nodded to himself; as he replaced the gem into its pocket. "Now onto the second matter that I wished to talk to you about in regards to the boy. He has much potential in the magical abilities, and I would much rather that he be properly trained now instead of going down a darker path later on because he was only partially trained. I would also say that in some ways he is almost too powerful for your style of magic."

"He's too powerful?" Sirius asked, with a mixture of pride and confusion at that statement. "How can he be to powerful?"

"Yes, too powerful." Dr. Strange confirmed with the wizard." He is not a wizard but a sorcerer, a wand will merely hold him back, in fact I wouldn't be all that surprised to find out that he is more skilled at the more powerful or advanced spells, while the weaker ones are the ones that he has more difficulty with."

Remus didn't say anything, however he remembered all of the classes he had taught Harry, how in less than a year Harry had managed to produce a fully formed and battle ready patronus. Only a handful of aurors were capable of creating such things, and even then they were not always the best. Yet here was a boy, who at thirteen years old, could cast to drive multiple Dementors away from him and two others. Remus nodded with Sirius before turning to Dr. Strange. "You're right; I've seen him master adult level spells in a few months, whereas he struggles with something as simple as the silencing charm."

Strange nodded his thanks at the man for confirming his theories on the boy, while Harry scuffed his feet and blushed. "I can teach the boy to be a sorcerer, and to use his full potential. Like your famous wizard Dumbledore he has much potential, but whereas Dumbledore is a wizard first and a sorcerer second. The boy is a sorcerer first and a wizard second. It is also why your Dark Lord is so powerful, because while he has just as much magical potential as the other two, he is only a wizard."

"What are the conditions?" Sirius asked hesitantly, noticing how Harry's eyes had lit up at the prospect of being taught magic once again. He couldn't deny the pup something like this, and had been planning on having Moony and himself teach the kid what they could. Between the two of them they were highly skilled, but a real teacher was even better, and this man could teach him his magic style. This man was also obviously powerful, and the fact that he was offering to teach Harry was amazing. Add in the fact that this was something neither of them could teach made it all the more important that they find a suitable teacher for the kid.

"He will need to apprentice himself to me. For the next seven years or until I think that he is ready, I will then train him in the arts of the Sorcerer. He will be allowed to spend some time with you of course, but he will have to work you into his training schedule." Dr. Strange explained to the group. "While he will not be bound to the training, to leave it could stunt his development."

"Well kiddo, this is your life we're talking about what do you think?" All of the men turned to look at the boy as Sirius questioned him.

Harry swallowed nervously, "I want to do this Sirius, maybe I can still do magic this way."

"It will be a different style of Magic young one." Strange warned him, "however, you may find yourself more at ease with the style of magic I will show you."

"Then I think that there is something that we should do if you're to become his teacher." Remus said as he offered his hand to the man. "I'm Remus Lupin, the man beside me is Sirius Black and the boy is Harry Potter." The group waited warily as the man absorbed that information in. They knew that with the reputations that Sirius and Harry had, the man might change his mind on teaching.

"I am Dr. Strange, the Sorcerer Supreme," he replied, as he offered his own hand to the group of outcasts. "I believe that there is much we can learn from each other. You also do not have to worry too much about the Wizarding Society coming after you here. Wand witches and wizards don't live in New York because the Statute of Secrecy has dubbed it too dangerous because of the chance of discovery. The various super humans in the city make it exceedingly dangerous. Sorcerers, who are even rarer than wand users, often move about the regular world and are undetectable for the most part from your various detection methods, unless they also have the ability to use a wand like the boy or your Dumbledore. There is a small werewolf community of wand wavers that live near here though. They do tend to keep to themselves for the most part and stay away from the public eye on full moon nights." He turned to regard Sirius for a moment. "I have many questions that I would ask you considering your reputation Sirius Black. Even here we have been given some alerts to your crimes. I do not particularly like helping escaped convicts without good reason."

"Hey," Sirius said somewhat indignantly, "I never got a trial, so how can I be an escaped convict?"

Dr. Strange frowned at this. If the man was telling the truth, then there was a chance he might not have done anything wrong. "Will you allow me to use the Eye of Agamotto on you, Sirius Black? It will determine if you are guilty of your crimes or not. If you are guilty the Eye of Agamotto will judge you as magic sees fit, if you are innocent it will release you and I will help you get a trial and lend you what legal aide I can."

Sirius nodded his head, his usually smirking face having faded to a weary and haggard man. "Do it," he pleaded of the Sorcerer.

Strange nodded as he made a hand sign and they all watched as the clasp on his cape seemed to open like a giant eye. A beam of energy erupted from the eye and focused on Sirius. The beam bathed the man in a golden glow for a moment before snapping shut. Dr. Strange regarded the man before him for a moment. "While you are not a pure soul, you have suffered much for the misdeeds of others. You, who once ruled a school with jokes and pranks, fought against the darkness and earned your right to defend yourself and others with reasonable means. I gladly offer my aide to one such as you. As long as you defend the weak, helpless, and protect the world, my home shall always be open unto you."

Sirius smiled in relief as he accepted Dr. Strange's offered hand. "Thank you," the man said.

"You should rest for a moment though; the effects of the Eye of Agamotto are very draining on people even for those who are not judged by it," Dr. Strange warned the man.

"Thanks," Sirius said, as the other two quickly helped their friend into a nearby chair.

"It is the least I can do for one such as you." Dr. Strange assured the man. "As I promised, I shall do all that I can to help you in the battles to come. Both the ones on the street and the ones that are in the courtrooms. Rest now though my friend."

Remus looked over at Strange curiously. "I was wondering if you would object if we trained him in our style as well?"

"Not at all, perhaps he shall discover a way to blend the two styles together. Making himself an even more powerful magic user." Dr. Strange said with one of his rare smiles. "I expect there will be many great things to happen around you, Harry Potter."

Harry remembered hearing similar words when he had gotten his wand and wondered if it was a sign of what was to come.


	3. Losses

Another chapter, another disclaimer: I own neither of the universes here.

* * *

><p>December 3rd: Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry Headmaster's office.<p>

Fudge glared angrily at Dumbledore, as if the way things were was the old headmaster's fault. His personally selected, Ministry approved High Inquisitor and Senior Undersecretary, Madame Delores Umbridge had failed to deal with the problems coming from Hogwarts. The small woman had spent the last few months trying to destroy the support that Potter and Dumbledore both still had. Even without being there, it seemed that the boy's very essence or spirit had remained at the school to challenge her. He had nearly been tempted to send for an exorcist to ensure that wasn't the case. Every move she made had been countered by Dumbledore or the students until the woman could barely do anything but shout and watch as she was ignored. She was stopped dead in the water, her supposed power over Hogwarts and its students meaning nothing. Even with the loss of their protector.

The year had started out so well too, with Dumbledore marginalized and Potter expelled and out of sight. Fudge himself had gladly snapped the holly wood wand himself. An act that was turning into a somewhat bittersweet memory for him, what with everything that had happened in the last couple of days. It had all fallen apart late last night when Dumbledore and his band of followers had stopped You-Know-Who from taking something from the Department of Mysteries. The Dark Lord and the Headmaster had, in fact, been interrupted in a battle in the atrium of the Ministry. The fact that the entire Auror force, and most of the Department Heads had seen the Dark Lord had not helped either. Now that he had seen the truth, he was being forced to do something about it by the masses. He needed something that would calm the people down, and the old man sitting across from him was no longer the answer. The people wanted the hero that had stopped him last time. They wanted the Boy-Who-Lived; they wanted Harry-Bloody-James-Sodding-Potter back.

"I don't care what has to be done just get Potter back in Hogwarts where he needs to be Dumbledore. If he doesn't return by the New Year I will probably lose my position in the Ministry. The people need Potter here for hope now that You-Know-Who is back. He stopped him once, maybe we'll get lucky and he'll do it again," Fudge said somewhat hopefully.

Dumbledore nodded in agreement with the Minister as he looked him over from his half-moon spectacles. "I am very well aware of this Cornelius; although I don't think that stopping Voldemort will be anywhere near as easy as it was last time. You should also keep in mind that it was your court that expelled Harry from Hogwarts," he pointed out to the man.

"That doesn't matter right now," Fudge said, waving that little detail aside as unimportant. "What does matter right now is that we need to get Potter back here as soon as possible, preferably before someone tries to make a run at my job."

"Unfortunately Cornelius, Harry is going to be much more difficult to find than you may believe him to be." Dumbledore said, looking somewhat discouraged.

"What do you mean Albus? Just bring him back from his relatives, or whatever little hiding place that you have him secreted away at now," Fudge demanded of the older wizard. "I'll even ignore the fact you've probably had someone teaching him as well. We can say that he was receiving special training and that the whole trial was something we cooked up so no one would notice Potter being gone from Hogwarts." He began to plan how he would present everything to the people. "Yes, we'll just say that we were trying to draw Him out," he said, as he schemed on how best to meet his challengers.

"And that is where our problems begin Cornelius; I simply have no idea where Mr. Potter might be," Dumbledore explained to the scheming politician. "The truth of the matter is, I haven't seen him since the day of his hearing. His magical guardian took him one night to places unknown."

"Then where is he?" Fudge whined, as he saw his one chance of political survival disappear, his plans falling apart before they could even be used.

"I really wish I knew the answer to that Minister, but I have no idea what the answer may be. Most of my searches have been through Great Britain, Scotland, France, and Ireland, all of which have turned up nothing. He has had three months to disappear though, he could literally be anywhere in the world by now and we would not know."

"We need that boy Albus, without him we'll be lost." Fudge said angrily. "I'll pull all available Aurors off of their current duties and have them begin searching for the boy."

"You can certainly try, however I have no idea just where he is, nor do his friends Mr. Weasley or Miss Granger. I have questioned them both extensively, and they have no idea whatsoever as to what it is that has happened to Harry. They both have done their best trying to determine where he might go and ask me about the status of the search at least twice a day. The closeness of those three's friendship sometimes astounds me. It will be nice having more people helping out in the search, but we are for the moment constrained by the lack of knowledge of where to search."

The headmaster hadn't been kidding when he said that the pair were always asking about their missing friend. The pair it seemed had been ready to drop their classes and help in any way that they could with the search. When they had been forbidden, Hermione had retreated to the libraries and begun researching every locater spell she could find. Trying to find ways to extend the spells effectiveness and range beyond what they were if she couldn't find anything new. Dumbledore had been laying some of his own personal books on such subjects out for her to find, figuring that using the girl for his own means was fine. The quest for Harry meant that letting some of the knowledge that he usually kept back from others had to be released. Ron Weasley, on the other hand, had thrown himself into fighting for Harry, becoming his friend's champion. The usually volatile redhead was a cauldron of simmering rage that no one wanted to get to close to for fear that he would attack them. McGonagall had dragged him into her office several times to cool him down and threatened to remove his prefect badge if he couldn't control himself. Ron had merely told her to give it to Neville and resort him into Hufflepuff if she didn't want him to stand up for his friend. McGonagall had released him after that with stern warnings, unsure of what else to do. What was bad about this though was that there was no one doing the same for Dumbledore. None of his supporters had been so open in working for him. Sure there were those that were helpful to him, but none of them had ever shown the amount of loyalty that those two showed to Harry. It was somewhat discouraging to the old wizard who remembered a time that the people would have flocked to him in support, but now even the ones that supported him were afraid to actually say anything out loud. Minerva and Hagrid were actually the few exceptions and even he wasn't sure where they stood if it came down between himself and Harry. In order to truly gtt the people behid him in the war again he needed Harry.

"The wizarding world needs Potter now more than ever," Fudge complained, interrupting the headmaster's thoughts.

"I agree, and after I find him I shall do my best to see to it that he is brought to Hogwarts," Dumbledore assured the portly man.

"Yes, give him whatever he wants; just get him back here Albus." Fudge ordered. "As of this moment, I'm putting you in charge of the search for the boy."

"I am gratified to know that your faith in me has changed so much," the old wizard said with a smirk.

"Yes, I'll also be sending over someone else to teach your DADA courses. I, unfortunately, am going to have more immediate concerns for Senior Undersecretary Umbridge to deal with, now that we are on the verge of war and she cannot be in both places at once. I'm sure that Amelia will pick out a suitable replacement for her. Perhaps she can send Rufus Scrimgeour to do it," he suggested as he knew the auror was looking to promote himself in these times.

"A most regrettable action, but it is important that one knows ones limits after all. I am sure that the students will all be there to see that she gets a decent send off. I'm sure that her replacement will strive to become a part of the Hogwarts teaching staff. I shall see if I cannot get the other professors to help with the class until an appropriate replacement can be found," Dumbledore said politely as his eyes twinkled at the Minister.

"Er yes," Fudge said blushing slightly.

* * *

><p>It had taken nearly three weeks with the combined efforts of the Ministry and Dumbledore to locate Harry. Alastor Moody, Nymphadora Tonks, Amelia Bones, and Percy Weasley had combined their skills and talents to locate the missing Boy-Who-Lived. While Moody and Tonks had followed the physical trail, Percy had followed the paper trail and Amelia had coordinated all of them together into an effective search team. They had followed every lead and scrap of evidence, and it had only been when Percy had traced Remus Lupin's past that he managed to find what they needed. To make it somewhat embarrassing for the group though, it had actually been Hermione Granger that had suggested that particular angle. Most of them had shrugged the werewolf off as unimportant member of the group, until they had been reminded how desperate they were for clues. The werewolf had spent three years in the States after the deaths of the Potters. Never staying in the same area more than three months, but sticking to the werewolf communities. Percy theorized that it was possible that Lupin was doing the same thing again, at least during nights of the full moon. Moody and Tonks had entered various werewolf communities, waved some gold around and had eventually found out all that they needed to know. Werewolves being the untrusting type, had seen and followed Remus to a large house on several nights. Reports of a boy that matched Harry Potter's description had also been reported and Moody had even gotten close enough to see the house and had confirmed that Potter was there.<p>

Now that they knew where he was, they could retrieve their missing hero from his exile and prepare him to defeat the darkest wizard of the Age. Dumbledore and Fudge led a group of Aurors, a pair of Hogwarts students and Hagrid to the house that Harry had been traced to. The entire group stared up at the impressive house that had wards as strong, if not stronger, than the ones that guarded Hogwarts itself. Though they were of a different style of magic than what the headmaster was used to. It was Dumbledore's hope that by having Harry's nearest and dearest there to try and convince him, that their task would be that much easier to accomplish. They had tried to get the Americans support but, when it became clear that it was in New York, the Americans had pulled back saying they were welcome to try but that city was a hot spot that wizards simply did not enter. No amount of blustering or urging by Fudge or Dumbledore had convinced them to come, and the group had been forced to have only their own members come.

The group was greeted at the door by a bald Asian man who acted the part of a servant. "Good day, my dear man. We are representatives from Britain and were hoping that you could take us to Mr. Potter. We have some rather pressing business that we need to discuss with him," Dumbledore said, before Fudge could say anything that would anger the residents of this house.

Wong nodded as he listened to the old wizard, he easily recognized a majority of the group as he had been told about them from Harry, or he had seen their pictures in the wizard newspaper that Remus read. He led the group into the library before leaving them. "I shall see if young Harry can see you now."

"Yes, you do that, we have a busy schedule after all," Fudge said pompously, his mind on the speech he would give when they returned home after they had retrieved Potter. He was already planning some of the campaigns that he would try once the boy was back. Once he was known as the man who brought Potter back, the people would forget that Potter had left because of him in the first place.

Wong ignored the portly Minister and turned to the Hogwarts part of the retrieval group. "Be careful of some of the books in here, for not all are as innocent looking as they may appear. Particularly yourself Miss Granger, young Potter has warned us of your devotion to learning. The Master would hate for something to happen to any of his guests, particularly friends." Hermione blushed at this while the Ministry personal impatiently, tapping their wands against their legs. Dumbledore chuckled at the obvious light hearted joke; Ron looked over at the man hopefully. "And you Mr. Weasley were also mentioned, often for both your temper and your loyalty once you are convinced of something." Ron beamed at this description from his friend.

They were interrupted from anything else though as the two teens heard a familiar sound. Spinning around the pair saw a familiar creature. "Hedwig!" They cried out in relief at seeing the animal before them. The snowy white owl turned to see the pair before gliding over to them and then bounced off Ron's head and landed in front of Hermione. The two teens quickly began petting the preening owl.

This stopped though as Remus Lupin, Sirius Black and Harry Potter entered the library. "Black," Fudge growled while his two aurors raised their wands at the escapee.

"Remus, Sirius, Harry." Dumbledore greeted politely, nodding toward the trio of runaways. Their disappearance had caused him a number of problems, and he had been forced to cash in a number of favors into finally getting here. If they had only been patient then everything would have turned out alright. He only hoped that they hadn't caused too much damage to his plans for the coming war.

"Headmaster," Remus and Harry greeted respectfully. There was a hint of wariness behind their eyes though that troubled the headmaster.

"Fudge," Sirius greeted with mock joy, "I must admit this is a much more enjoyable way to meet up than last time. Of course, back then there was a set of prison bars keeping us away from each other. On the bright side I can now offer you a place to sit down and even a newspaper this time around." He flashed the minister a mocking grin as he offered a copy of the Daily Prophet.

Dumbledore observed the Marauders and their heir, and had to admit that he was somewhat impressed. All three looked well rested and were all well-dressed. The marauders were dressed as muggles, having traded their robes for jeans and shirts. Harry was dressed in a combination of wizard and muggle clothing. His shirt appeared to be of oriental design though, and surprisingly he seemed to be wearing his father's invisibility cloak. With the hood down and it being open the boy appeared to be wearing a multi colored cloak. He wondered idly if he could find a way to copy the look into his own clothes and have some robes made up to look like that. The sparkle in all of their eyes let the aging wizard know that they were happy here. He was almost sad that he would be forced to take them away. The needs of the many people of England far outweighed the group's wants though. It was for the Greater Good that they returned with them.

Fudge shivered at the comments made by Sirius before remembering that he had two aurors, Hagrid, and Dumbledore on his side of the room while Black only had himself, Potter, and Lupin. Since Potter likely didn't have a wand, it would mainly be a fight between the adults. "You men, seize him!" The Minister commanded his people.

"I think not," Dr. Strange said as he entered the room and summoned the aurors wands to him. "Mr. Black is a guest here, and you have no right to go blasting away at things or people in my home without permission." He said from his position in the doorway."

Sirius smiled at the man in thanks, while Hermione gaped in shock and awe as she recognized the figure that stood before all of them. Only an elbow to the ribs by Harry stopped her from saying anything to them.

"But he's a convicted killer, and you all heard him threaten me." Fudge blustered at the unknown figure.

Strange just gave the man an amused look. "Really? Then you won't mind supplying us with the court records from his trial then. We asked the goblins, but they couldn't find them, which is a cause of great concern. Once other countries learned of this, the majority of them called off their hunts for Black. Though the United Kingdom, and her neighboring countries have not done the same. The lawyers that we have retained to deal with this problem are very good at what they do though and have been continuously applying for the right to represent Mr. Black. Your Undersecretary, a Madame Umbridge has been most forceful in her denying them the chance to present their case though."

"Not to mention that Jessica is a great kisser, although Matt's dry sense of humor is amusing as well," Sirius piped up.

"Sirius," Remus groaned at his friend.

"What, it's true. Besides I seem to recall hearing a similar conversation about you and Rahne not too long ago," the dark haired man smirked, to his friend's embarrassment.

"Crouch, and Bagshot" Fudge complained quickly picking someone to blame for this newest problem that came with Potter. "Look Harry," he tried hoping that the boy would accept blaming the old administration for the problems of his godfather.

"That's Mr. Potter to you, Minister. I recall that was how you insisted on addressing me during that trial a while ago," Harry replied to the Minister as he looked up from the rather forceful hug that Hermione was giving him. Ron settled with giving him a one armed hug. No one had really been paying attention to the reunion of friends while they had all been focused on the confrontation between Sirius and Fudge.

Fudge twirled his bowler hat nervously as he began to realize how many bridges he had burned with this boy. "Er, yes, nasty business that was. The court recently went over the information again and cleared you of all charges though," he explained with a hopeful smile.

"Well you must have had plenty of time in the legal department to do that since you lot weren't getting anything else done," Sirius shot at the man. "Or were they all that busy looking for me? Please tell me that there were a lot of beautiful female Aurors looking for me." The faraway look and lecherous grin he wore let everyone know just what he was thinking about.

Fudge glared at the wizard, wanting to do nothing more than to wring the dark haired pureblood's neck. The man forced himself to face the Potter boy as he had to contain himself. "Anyways Mr. Potter, on behalf of the Ministry of Magic, I wish to offer you our apologies, a full Ministry pardon, reinstate you back into Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, and of course, an agreement to replace your wand."

"Yes, and I happen to have your acceptance letter here," Dumbledore said brightly, as he dug into his robe and pulled out a letter for the boy with the Hogwarts crest on it. "The Ministry has even agreed to give you an exemption for the summer so that you may catch up with the rest of your year mates and take O.W.L's during the first month of summer."

Harry looked sorrowfully at the letter being offered to him. "I wish I could accept that letter headmaster but I can't." Harry said as he turned the acceptance letter down, handing it back to the man.

Hermione frowned at her friend. "Harry?" She questioned while grabbing her friend in a tight embrace.

"Mate?" Ron questioned, looking worried. "Come on Harry, this is Hogwarts that we're talking about." He pleaded with his friend.

"What?" Fudge questioned in shock dropping his bowler to the ground ignoring the group of friends as they were having a contest of wills. "Unacceptable boy, you need to rejoin the wizarding world. It needs you. Tell him how he needs to be at Hogwarts Dumbledore. Tell him how important his, ah, education is now."

Dumbledore nodded with the Minister, "He's right my boy, you need to let go of this grudge that you have and finish your education. Now is the time that we must all band together and not allow our differences get in the way."

Harry shook his head at the man, "Part of me wishes that I could headmaster but I can't. I'm under an apprenticeship agreement. I can't exactly leave, now can I?"

Dumbledore shoulders sagged at this as he realized the truth of what the boy said. It would appear, for the moment, he had lost Harry but there was a chance of luring his Master into teaching at Hogwarts. Then Harry would be back at school where he belonged and he could keep an eye on the boy and what he was doing. 'If the DADA curse was given some help the boy might even find himself without a master by the end of the year as well.' He mused to himself.

"Dumbledore," Fudge complained to his companion, as he saw his last chance for political redemption being destroyed before his very eyes.

Dumbledore shook his head sadly towards the man. "Unfortunately I can do nothing about this Minister. You shall have to 'learn to live with it,' as the younger generations say. An apprenticeship merely requires an agreement between the two parties and it is perfectly legal and binding."

"Indeed it is." Dr. Strange said in agreement with the headmaster.

"Just who are you anyways, and what business is this of yours?" Fudge growled in anger. This man was becoming an annoyance with the way he kept interfering in Ministry business.

"I am Dr. Stephen Strange, and this happens to be my house," the man returned to him. "I have also taken the boy under my tutelage," he added to the group.

Dumbledore and Fudge looked up at the man with renewed interest at this. "Perhaps we can come to some sort of an understanding then," the Minister said hopefully. "The people of Britain need Harry to once more be there for them in their time of need. As the Minister of Magic I can offer you a house of your own, near Hogwarts even."

"Perhaps, if you were interested, I could even offer you a position within Hogwarts itself," Dumbledore offered the man. "With the recent proclamation that we are in a state of war once again, members of my staff that had double duty within the Ministry, have been recalled and I find myself burdened with the task of trying to refill the DADA position over the Christmas Holidays."

"A capital idea," Fudge said happily, as he realized that this would cost him much less this way.

Dr. Strange shook his head at the duo. "I am afraid I must decline your most generous offer headmaster. I am simply much too busy with my work and responsibilities here in New York to take the time to go and teach at a school on the other side of the world."

Dumbledore frowned, the mage before him was an American so he was less enamored with the Dumbledore name and myth. This meant that he had to work harder to convince the man that his way was right. "Surely there must be someone that can do these other duties for at least the remaining school year?" He said hopefully while sending a mental probe at the man trying to find what he might want in exchange. He was somewhat surprised when the man deflected his probe so casually and didn't even seem to try. He had thought that he was a master in the mental arts yet this man treated his probe like it was nothing. He wished he had more time to learn about this Stephen Strange. "As the magical guardian of Harry Potter I think that I should have some say in where he is taught." He tried.

"You never had that right headmaster," Dr. Strange informed the man sagely. "Sirius Black has always been the magical guardian to the boy. Despite his illegal imprisonment, it has always been Black. The goblins have confirmed it for us, and you have accepted it. As he is now my apprentice though, I am now his magical guardian."

Dumbledore frowned. The man obviously did not like being told no and rarely heard it. "Perhaps we can make a deal," he suggested. "A minor little duel to decide the fate of young Harry. The stakes shall be his magical guardianship."

"You wish to challenge me for the right to teach him headmaster?" Dr. Strange questioned in amusement.

"If it is the only way to ensure that he returns to our world, then I shall do so." Dumbledore replied to the man.

"Very well, if you win you get the boy, if I win though you agree to leave him alone and do not contact him through any means until Harry allows you to," Strange returned to him.

Dumbledore nodded his head in agreement confident in his abilities with a wand. Fudge merely beamed, seeming to approve of the idea of the battle between the two.

"Harry, Wong. Go prepare the training room for wand combat." Strange commanded the pair.

"At once Master." Wong said bowing to the man before he walked out of the room followed by the trio of friends. Ron and Hermione were not about to let Harry out of their sight, afraid that he would disappear on them again. The others followed the trio a moment later to a large room. The two duelers each took a side of the room and faced each other. Dumbledore drew his wand and waited while Strange accepted a golden looking wand from Wong. The fight was unexpectedly short as Strange crafted a shield to absorb the attacks and then returned the blasts back at the headmaster.

The others all watched in awe as Dumbledore fell to the ground tied up in several red bands of magical energy. Strange held his hand out and Dumbledore's wand flew into his hand. He held the wand for a moment and seemed to be studying it before he turned to look at the downed wizard. "This wand is a powerful creation of Elder magic headmaster. However, despite all of its potential power the wand is a cursed one. I would recommend using a different wand as this one could be your downfall someday. He then released the bindings on Dumbledore and returned his wand to him.

Dumbledore sighed as he rose to his feet. He had lost, and until Harry allowed for the two of them to speak there was nothing he could do. To add to his troubles while he may still possess the Elder Wand, he was no longer its Master. This change would make battling Tom all the more difficult should he choose to fight him once again. "Very well, I shall leave you then." Dumbledore said with a heavy heart, as he was led out of the room by Wong with the Ministry people following behind him. He was surprised when Harry didn't defend him or say anything to him. If the silence continued, he would have to find a way to inform Molly about what had happened. The woman would be sure to write a letter or possibly even a Howler in his defense and order the boy to start communicating with him. The silence would not be all that long at least.

"You haven't heard the end of this," Fudge promised them as he stalked out of the room. "I'll get the I.C.W involved in this. Potter is a British subject and is needed by his country."

"Until then Minister Fudge," said Strange, impatiently motioning towards the doors. "When the meeting is called, perhaps we can bring up Sirius Black and his illegal incarceration as well." Fudge swallowed nervously at the statement before fleeing from the building.

Hagrid looked sadly at Harry. "Ogwarts jest won't be dhe same witout ch'ya Arry," the Half-Giant said sadly.

Harry smiled sadly at the large man. "I know Hagrid, but there are things that I have to do and this is one of them. I'll always remember you as the man that saved me, brought me into the magical world, and introduced me to Hedwig though," he said, nodding to the owl that had returned to her perch in the corner.

Hagrid wiped away a tear even as he puffed up. No one was sure if it was because of what he had done for Harry, or because Harry had so casually called him a man. "Yer a good kid Arry Potter and yer going tah be a great wizard when ya grow up." He sniffled once more before walking out the door.

The trio were the only ones left for the moment as Strange, Sirius, and Remus were all gone as well. "I'm going to miss you mate," Ron said uncomfortably, as he gave his friend a hug. "I'll do my best to write to you. You realize that you'll have to start taking care of yourself now Harry? We won't be there to back you up when something happens." Ron's weak joke was even worse because of the anguish on his face, as he didn't want to not back his best friend up. Ron had flashbacks of last year and realized he had really screwed things up by being mad at his friend for something not his fault. He was really lucky that his friend was so willing to forgive him for his prat like attitude.

"Yeah," Harry said thickly, not sure what else to say.

Hermione sniffed one more time before she caught both boys into one of her bruising hugs. "Why are you both so stupid?" She questioned the pair of them. The boys each reached over with one arm and brought her in smiling at their emotional friend.

"Mental she is," the two said with grins.

A few moments later the group separated and three watery-eyed friends headed for the door. Harry watched his friends as they walked out. Hermione turned around once and gave him another hug. "I promise I'll write to you and send copies of all of my notes and try to convince my parents to let me visit at least once," the witch assured him. "In return you can explain to me how you met **THE **Dr. Strange though."

"Hedwig will be worn out by the time you're done with school then," Harry teased the witch with a smile. "As for how we met it's not really much of a story all things considered. Kind of like the one where the three of us became friends." The girl gave him an incredulous look as she very well remembered the circumstances that had formed their original friendship. Shaking her head she gave Harry a quick peck on the cheek and Ron gave him a punch on the shoulder before they returned to the people they came with. Harry smiled as he watched his friends disappear with the group.

"Come, Harry. We have had enough interruptions for today, and there is still much work to do," Dr. Strange told the young man.

"Of course, Dr. Strange," Harry agreed as he followed the mystic back inside the house.


	4. As the Years Roll By

Another chapter another denial of ownership on either HP characters which belong to JKR or the Comic Book ones which are Marvel property. 

* * *

><p><strong>America:<strong> 2 Years After Leaving

Harry Potter groaned as he rolled to one side, barely avoiding a blast of mystic energy. Baron Mordo was attacking the Sanctum once again, making this the third attack on the building this month. Three wands fired off a handful of spells towards the man who countered with his shield. He, Wong, Sirius, Remus, and Hermione were all doing their best to hold the Dark Sorcerer back while Dr. Strange dealt with Dormammu. Hermione had started spending all of her school breaks in New York City to be around him and to personally deliver all of her various Hogwarts notes to Harry. She also acted as his tutor in Ancient Runes, COMC, and Arithmancy. It had gotten to the point where Wong had just set aside a room for the girl near Harry's room. It helped that she was also able to spend time with her parents while on her visits as well. Ron usually came for a few weeks in the summer, but his stays were much shorter than Hermione's, who always managed to stay until the last minute. The stays were also somewhat strained as the Weasley boy was often trying to convince his friend to contact Dumbledore again so that they could try and work something out. The boys often ended up spending their time arguing and making up over their disagreements when it came to Dumbledore. Harry after spending time under Strange now knew what it meant to have a real protector and mentor, while Ron was still enthralled by the legend that was Dumbledore.

Harry had decided to hold off on having anything serious to do with the wizarding world until after his training was complete. He would let the people in charge deal with the threat of Voldemort, it was what so many of the members of the Order of the Phoenix had wanted anyways. Why should he argue with that particular request of theirs? Besides, with all of the training that he was receiving he was much too busy to just start up a lot of discussions with the headmaster on a war he was doing his best to stay out of. If they had wanted his help so badly then perhaps they should have made it more clear when he was around instead of just having him hidden away doing house chores. Molly Weasley also had her problems since her Howlers were casually dealt with by Dr. Strange who destroyed them with a wave of his hand. None of the righteous anger that woman felt was ever heard by the various people that lived in Salem.

The Ministry had tried a few times here and there, to convince or force Harry to return to England and Hogwarts. Since they refused to admit they were wrong about the whole Sirius incident though, they had very little to convince Harry with. The one time that they had tried an outright assault against their home had ended with several wounded Hit-wizards and Aurors. The attacks had stopped though when it became apparent that they had more important things to worry about such as trying to keep the war out of their country. Between Fudge and Scrimgeour, it was amazing that they didn't run the country into the ground with their policies. It was all Dumbledore and the Ministry could do just to hold Voldemort and his forces back at times. The so called 'Light' controlled Scotland, while England itself was under the control of the 'Dark'. Surprisingly, no Death Eaters ever learned of the location of where Harry and the others lived despite the Ministry building and its records having fallen into the hands of Voldemort. It seemed that the records had either been destroyed or hidden away before the Dark managed to finally take the Ministry.

With Hermione staying so long, it hadn't taken her long before she had become aware just who and what Dr. Strange really was. Hermione had a small knack for some of the sorcerer spells, though her skill resided mainly in the art of the wand with some skill in elemental magic, unlike Harry who with training could mold both Wizard and Sorcerer magic near effortlessly once he understood the spells.

"Back off!" Harry shouted as he thrust both hands at the Baron sending bolts of energy to join the attacks of the others.

Mordo merely chuckled as all the attacks bounced off his shield. "Even with the help of your friends, boy, you're still no match for me." The man made a shooing gesture and a telekinetic blast knocked Remus and Sirius into a wall. The younger pair ran in a circle around the man throwing various magical attacks at him. Mordo shook his head in disgust at the two teens. A whip made of lighting appeared in his hands and he knocked the wand out of Hermione's hand. The girl fell to the ground twitching. He then sent several bits of metal to hold Harry's hands. Mordo sneered as he floated down in front of the downed teens.

"You're going to have to try a better look of disgust; we've been sneered and scowled at by the master." Harry said with a defiant grin.

"Brave till the last moment boy?" Mordo questioned as he lifted him up by the front of his shirt and slapped him hard enough to split his lip.

A boom echoed throughout the building and the doors opened to reveal Dr. Strange standing tall, his eyes glowing with mystic energy. "Mordo, release my apprentice!" The man demanded as he stalked into the room.

"Come any closer and the boy gets it Strange." The other sorcerer returned as he held up a glowing hand towards the boy. "You are taking them young these days aren't you?" He questioned with mild curiosity.

"He has much potential." Dr. Strange returned. They were interrupted from their usual banter as Padfoot leaped forward and snapped his jaws around the glowing arm of Mordo. Dr. Strange reacted to the distraction and fired a blast into the figure trying to hold his student.

Mordo looked at the group of fighters climbing back to their feet to renew their fight with him. "Another time Strange." Mordo promised, before he disappeared into a cloud of smoke.

"You did well for your first battle against Mordo." Dr. Strange complimented his student.

"What do you mean? He beat us" Harry grumbled, as he stared at the cloud of smoke the other sorcerer had left. "We had him with four to one odds and he beat us."

"You are still young and have much to learn though my apprentice." Dr. Strange informed his student. "As for your companions they use wands which while powerful are nowhere near the power that a Sorcerer wields." He reminded the annoyed teen. "Do not be in such a hurry though. The time will come when you are able to do battle with people like Mordo on your own. But now is not the time."

Harry nodded his head in reluctant acceptance of what his mentor told him.

"Also, think of how well you held your own against one of my most dangerous of foes," Strange added. "Baron Mordo is not someone that you dismiss without any thought. The fact that you managed to last as long as you did is a true testament to the power that you wield, and how strong that you and your friend are becoming." 

* * *

><p><strong>Hogwarts<strong>: 5 Years After Leaving

The years passed and the stalemate between the Light and Dark sides of the magical wizarding world continued, causing a magical civil war that spanned across the entire United Kingdom. England and Wales were deeply rooted into Voldemort's service, while Scotland and Ireland were hosts to Dumbledore and the Ministry. Trade with the rest of the wizarding magical world tapered off as the two forces continued to fight each other each vying for complete control of the United Kingdom. Voldemort and his followers had quickly crushed the resistance of those in England and had begun spreading his control farther out to take more control

Dumbledore stood at the top most turret of his castle and viewed the grounds of Hogwarts. With many fleeing the lands of their fore fathers, Hogwarts and Hogsmeade had been forced to become somewhat self-sufficient. Many of the stores that had been housed for generations within Diagon Alley had been relocated to the small wizard town. His sources and spies said that Diagon Alley had been overrun by the inhabitants of Knockturn Alley, as the darkness had spread through the United Kingdom so had it spread through the stores.

In response to the larger population of magical beings, a part of the Hogwarts grounds had been redone by some industrious muggle-born and now produced a variety of food stuffs that were tended by House-Elves and volunteers; with Professor Sprout doing checks once a week. Another area had been converted for sheep and goats to wander and graze with Hagrid overseeing them.

Dumbledore sighed a bit as he looked around at everything. Despite the grandness of all that he surveyed, he had long ago realized that it was a cage. One with gilded bars for sure, but it was a cage all the same. In an ironic twist of fate, he now understood Sirius and Harry somewhat better with their feelings in regard to Black Manor and number 4 Privet Drive. Before the war had started he could spend days and weeks within the walls of his school, but now that he was forced to stay here he wanted nothing more than to try and get out and away from this place. He yearned for the freedom to come and go where he wanted as he pleased. He missed the sights and sounds of the outside world even more than he had ever thought possible. If only Fudge hadn't expelled Harry and the boy hadn't decided he would rather take the Marauders and leave. He'd had many plans that had gone and crashed and burned thanks to that moment of teenaged rebellion. He had planned on sacrificing himself, Sirius, Severus, a handful of others, and of course Harry for the greater good of the world. All of his many plans and schemes for how this war would go were now ashes in the wind though. The easy and quick victory that he had originally planned had been turned to dust without Harry to learn about the subtler methods of life and other things. Dumbledore was now needed for the people, and he couldn't rely on the plans he had made.

He had hoped that the war would be rather quick; instead it had dragged on for several years until they had come to this, a stalemate. He had been forced into a game of wait and see by Tom and could do nothing. He knew he had to stay here at his castle since it was only a matter of time before Riddle tried another assault on the school. It was the center of wizarding magic in Europe, having lasted a thousand years.

He knew that there were several people that had begun drifting across the line and were almost as eager to kill Death Eaters and followers as the dark witches and wizards were ready to kill them. He did his best to keep them on the path to the light. His influence amongst some of the more radical ones was starting to wane though. Hermione Granger and Ronald Weasley were both prime examples of that. Alastor Moody had taken Ronald Weasley, Susan Bones, Padma Patil, and Blaise Zabini under his tutelage and created a fine team of Aurors. They were known as the Founder Aurors, a team with a member from each house more than capable of doing their duties during these dark times. They were somewhat bloodthirsty in his personal opinion, but some people had trouble dealing with their darker natures at times.

Hermione Granger was another kettle of fish altogether though; she was not an active participant in the war either on the fighting side or on the political lines like he had always thought she would be. Instead the dear girl was often traveling from one country to another learning all that she could in her magical studies. She also acted as guide and guard for those that wished to leave the country and get away from the war. A task that he was not very happy that she was doing and had refused to put Order resources toward. Once the war was finally over, they would need the people that she was helping to escape to rebuild their society. She was in her own way helping destroy their chances of survival even more. On her trips, if she was confronted she dealt harshly with those that tried to either kill her or force her into working for the Ministry. Many was the time that the Order had arrived 'too late' only to find the remains of her attackers. He was sure that if Harry had been around that this would never have happened to the pair.

Of course if Harry had been around, his plans would probably already have been enacted and Voldemort would now be dead and their society nearly finished with their recovery. The people needed something to believe in and he had tried to be that person. His days of being a hero for the people were long over though. He had tried to bring Neville Longbottom out of his shell, convincing himself that he could still be the child of prophecy or at the very least a good substitute until the real one returned to do his duty. The boy had unfortunately died alongside of his Gran while trying to subdue Lestrange, giving his pregnant wife Hannah time to escape.

Dumbledore retreated back into the castle; he would need to rest to regain his strength. He had to keep the school ready for the final battle. Harry would come back one day, and when he did he wanted to be the one to greet him. Besides he had to be around to explain his destiny to the boy, no one else knew about it. Once they were united, they would cleanse the world of the darkness that was sweeping the land and return it to the way it had been before. With Harry and Voldemort gone he would be the last power and die of victorious old age as he would watch three powerhouses fall in his life. 

* * *

><p><strong>America<strong>: 6 Years After Leaving

Harry sighed as he held his shield up while the others prepared themselves. He couldn't believe that they were actually fighting Mephisto of all beings. The guy was practically the devil himself, and was not someone that you wanted to be on the bad side of. In fact, he was the guy that you turned and walked away from as fast as possible and hoped he didn't think that you could be corrupted. Unfortunately, the guy had a lot of enemies, enemies that happened to be the friends and allies of Dr. Strange. There was also the added problem that the guy wanted to turn the Earth into some sort of hell dimension starting with New York City. He really hoped the others plan worked, because holding hellfire back was nowhere near as easy as the Sorcerer Supreme made it look.

"Not to rush you lot or anything, but if you have a plan to stop this guy I would really love it if you went ahead and did it before he barbeques me," the apprentice pleaded to the group of heroes. "We'll hold these guys for as long as possible.

Dr. Strange nodded as he rose to his feet. "Be careful my student, the followers of Mephisto are varied in their abilities and power."

"Just stop the dimensional rift before it becomes too much for me to shield against." Harry said as he watched several creatures appear. The young sorcerer waited until the others were gone before he held his staff up and slammed it down. The ritualistic staff allowed him to summon the animal spirits to help him in his fights. Ghostlike creatures responded to his call as the spirit creatures snarled at the demons. Harry's body glowed as he summoned strength, speed, and agility. Moving through the demons he countered their enhanced strength with his own while his spirit guardians ripped into the creatures. It they had souls the damage would have been more extensive, still the creatures were acting as a good distraction. Using his magic he formed several weapons and sent them shooting forward, impaling the creatures.

"This is getting ridiculous," he grumbled as he saw that the demons, while staggering back, weren't falling.

"That it is, little wizard hero" mocked a red skinned figure in a cloak. "Then again, what does one really expects from a soldier that doesn't know his place or war?"

"You really think I'm worth playing these games with?" Harry questioned nervously, as he backed away from the powerful demon. "We both know that most of my spells bounce off you whether they're from my hand or wand. So, why are you wasting your time making me question things?"

"Because this game is already over, you managed to save the real players enough time with your distractions and shields. Had you not stayed behind and caused the distractions that you did the game might have been mine," Mephisto explained to the young man. "Before you were merely a hanger-on and follower of Strange, but by doing this, you have made yourself known, and I shall be ready for you next time boy. I shall also pay you back someday for this trouble that you caused me today as well," he promised the young sorcerer, before disappearing in a burst of flame.

Waving his hands and muttering Harry sent more beams of magical power at the creatures. "I summon the Crimson Bands of Cyttorak!" he shouted, as red bands flew from his hands and wrapped around the beings, holding them in place. He then drew a wand from his pocket. The wand was oak, and had as its core a Pegasus of Asgard tail hair. It was a good wand to replace his own destroyed one with. He waved the wand and several blasting curses, disabling the creatures further before transfiguring the area around them into quicksand, then letting the ground solidify. He breathed a sigh of relief and sank to his knees as the amount of power he used to make the bonds tight enough, was more than he normally used on anything. He was relieved when he saw the world returning to normal. It seemed that they would all live to regret this mess after all.


	5. Returning

Another Chapter another denial of ownership. See the pattern? Marvel owns the comic book characters, JKR the Potter ones.

* * *

><p>Harry Potter looked toward his Master, who was observing the Orb of Agamotto. This magical device, while having the appearance of a giant crystal ball, was more like a globe of the world that showed where evil in the world resided. Over the land that was once his home there was a great darkness blotting out most of the shapes. The pair of sorcerers sat on either side of the giant orb, floating in the air as they regarded it.<p>

"The time has come Harry," Dr. Strange said, his apprentice finally looking up at the man. "For the past 7 years I have trained you in the arts of a sorcerer. You are a powerful sorcerer, nearly on the same level as Mordo." The man smirked knowingly at his student at that comment. Ever since their first encounter, Harry was always trying to best the man in mystical combat. Harry had come close several times, but he still lacked the skill and ability to beat the sorcerer without help or some last minute save from someone or something else. "You have passed all of my tests, and the tests of the Wizarding World getting high scores in both your O.W.L.S and N.E.W.T.S," he said, somewhat proudly of his student. "The darkness that has been ruling your homeland while you have learned cannot be allowed to continue though. You must balance it before it overflows and begins to affect the rest of the world. This is the task that life and destiny have given you. It is the burden of those with power to protect others. Your task in life is to deal with these demons of your past."

"And how do you suggest I do that?" Harry questioned his master curiously.

"The Dark Wizard and his forces must be stopped," Dr. Strange told him uncaringly. "He is upsetting the balance of magic in Europe and the imbalance is spreading. France and Italy are both feeling the effects of the imbalance. Stop it before it rips the very land itself apart. Gather your friends and allies and put a stop to this thing, this abomination that is destroying the balance."

Harry nodded his head in acceptance as he rose to his feet. The scrawny boy that had first come to Dr. Strange was long since gone. In his place was a wiry figure dressed in red and black. The boy wore an outfit similar to Dr. Strange's, but the shirt was red and the sash around his waist was golden, over his clothes he wore the Overcoat of Levitation. A magical article that Dr. Strange himself had created long ago. The coat had all of the abilities of Dr. Strange's Cloak. Around his shoulders he wore his Cloak of Invisibility, a magical artifact that was amongst the more powerful that Strange had ever seen. At his side was an ornamental dagger that, when drawn, the blade shifted into an elf sword. The weapon was a trophy that Harry had acquired from Malekith, the Dark Elf.

"It shall be done as you command," Harry said, bowing before he walked out of the room, his owl companion flew from a nearby perch and followed after him. Harry went to his quarters, quickly gathered his equipment and then headed out the doors. Waiting for him in the foyer were two older men with packed bag waiting at their feet. "You do not have to do this." Harry told the pair. "You fought in your war and more, you've both earned your rest."

Sirius Black snorted at his godson. "It's not your war, and it's not ours, it's our parents and Dumbledore's generation's war. We're just the lucky ones that have to clean it all up." He said with a sarcastic tilt in his voice.

"He's right, Harry. Besides, we left together, and I think its right that we should go back together," Remus said with a tight smile. "When you left, you were a half trained child, with barely any skill or knowledge beyond what most 5th years had. Now, when you go back you're going to be a person to be reckoned with." The werewolf proudly declared to the young man before him.

"Fine," Harry agreed, "but if your girlfriends decide to kick your butts for this one, I want it on record that I tried to convince you two old timers to sit this one out."

"Old?" Sirius said in an offended voice. "I don't care if you are a high and mighty sorcerer kid, come here." The dark haired man said as he lunged at the boy.

Harry smirked as he dodged the man's attack and used his wand to hang the man in the air. "And calling me 'kid' doesn't prove my point?" he asked with a dry chuckle as he tucked his wand away.

Sirius grumbled while a chuckling Remus canceled the spell work. "You have to admit that he has a point," the werewolf said.

"No I don't, and you can't make me either," Sirius said mutinously as he landed on his feet. "Why did Strange have to teach you dry humor anyways?" the man grumbled at his godson as he straightened his clothes out.

"Okay, let's go," Harry said turning to Dr. Strange, who had been watching the group with a knowing smile.

Dr. Strange nodded as he lifted his hands and a glowing circle appeared in front of them and then grew large enough for them to walk through. "Be careful all of you," he said as they walked by. "You, in particular, my student," he said fixing his student with a rather hard look. "I will not be around to save ou if something should go wrong this time around. This is your task I cannot interfere."

"As you command," the teen said as they all passed through the shimmering orb.

* * *

><p>When the group stepped out on the other side, they found themselves on the path that led between Hogsmeade and Hogwarts. Harry held his hand out and his staff with the Animus orb set atop appeared clutched in his hand. Slinging the staff over his shoulder, he began walking up the path; he barely even seemed to notice as Hedwig landed on the orb and rode upon her human. The group approached the gates and waited as Hagrid slowly but surely came to open them. Eyes widening in surprise and shock as he saw who was on the other side of the gates, the large man engulfed all of the newcomers into rib crushing hugs before he led them towards the castle. The trio made their way up over the grounds where they could see the results of pulling ever inward. The trio made their way over the grounds, silently observing the results of the Light side of the war continuously ceding ground to the enemy to the point that they were now hiding within the very walls of the school grounds themselves.<p>

Harry smiled as he saw the people that had assembled to greet them. Only the most observant and wary had actually noticed them it seemed. Leading the pack was Mad-Eye-Moody; beside him wearing rumpled robes was a grinning Ron, a blonde woman with pale blue eyes and radish earrings, McGonagall, Flitwick, and, leaning against the wall with a knowing smile, was Hermione.

"Stop and identify yourself," Moody demanded of the, trio as he pointed his wand at the group.

"Moody, the very castle and wards recognize me," Harry returned to the battle scarred man. "Now, I'm going to go up there and talk to the headmaster and after that, if I have the time, we can talk about whatever song and dance you usually do to people that come visiting."

Moody scowled as Potter fearlessly kept on walking towards the front doors, seeming to be without a care in the world. He stopped briefly in front of Weasley and Granger. The trio enveloped each other in hard hugs that only friends that hadn't seen each other in a long time could manage. The emotion the group felt was something you could almost reach out and touch. The two supposed defenders easily took their places on either side of Potter with the Marauders falling back a bit. Black was now alongside of Granger, while Lupin was backing Weasley. A brain and an impulsive one on either side, a rather dangerous combo. The other people merely parted before the group as they strode through. "Flitwick, Lovegood, Minerva, Hagrid, your with me," the man growled, as he stomped after the group.

Harry ignored their followers as he came before a familiar stone gargoyle. He waved his hand and several colors buzzed around the statue for a moment. "Move guardian, I would have words with your master." The statue stayed still for a moment before it bowed its head to the sorcerer and moved out of the way, revealing the stairs.

Shaking his staff Harry knocked Hedwig from her perch before he began climbing up the stairs. The group strode up the stairs and Harry didn't even pause as he opened the door with a wave of his hand. As they looked in they saw Dumbledore sitting at his large desk, his fingers laced and resting before him.

The old man smiled as he gave the appearance of a wise and all-knowing wizard. "Ah, Harry. I see that you have finally returned to us," the old man said, giving a brief knowing nod, acting as if Harry had just been gone a week or two instead of seven long years. "I see that you have even brought along some old friends," he noted, as he observed the group that had entered with him.

"Dumbledore," Harry returned unemotionally, giving a nod acknowledgment. "It has been a long time."

The two men ignored the others as the wizards and witches lined themselves against the walls of the office with a disturbing breaking of lines. The other members of the trio and the remainders of the Marauders on one side of the room, while the Order of the Phoenix members lined the other.

"You appear to be the bridge for your friends and your father's friends Harry." Dumbledore observed, as he finally noticed the way people were standing. "I think that your father would be happy to see that you have allowed them to be a part of your lives."

"I have become the bridge to many things Dumbeldore, and I make friends and allies that I approve of, not you or anyone else," the sorcerer returned coolly, ignoring the disgruntled looks McGonagall was sending him. "My teacher has requested that I come and deal with the abomination known as Voldemort and his forces, since you and the rest of the country are either incapable or unwilling to do so. Perhaps Hogwarts has an over embellished reputation for its staff and teachings."

The Order members, except for Moody and Dumbledore, flinched at the dark lord's name though the elder wizard did look slightly wounded at the dig that had been thrown at his school. "You will have to forgive them Harry," Dumbledore said, waving at the group. "They have merely become used to not saying his name since the taboo curse has been redone with his name. It is a most dangerous time to be carelessly saying his name out loud my boy."

"Your wards protect you here from the effects of the spell though," Harry countered him. "Here you are perfectly safe to say the name without fear of reprisal."

"That they do, but sometimes it is better to practice caution while in safety so as not to fear as much when out in the real world," Dumbledore explained to his former student.

"Interesting spell work, but not why I'm here. What type of forces has your Dark Wizard acquired while ruling his little bit of the world?" Harry questioned the leader of the opposing forces.

"The Dark Lord rules much of the United Kingdom now, Potter," Moody growled out from his place. "Just last week they took control of the Southern Uplands and most of Ireland. Because of that, the Ministry has now fallen twice, once in England and once in Dublin. It's only a matter of time before he decides to push forward and take the rest of the country. When that happens we'll be lucky to get half of the people out of here to someplace safe."

"Yes, Tom does have us rather hard pressed," Dumbledore said lightly. "Now that Harry is here though, the final battle can finally commence. Perhaps we can convince him of a duel or a single battle of select champions." The elder man mused to the others.

"What are his forces Dumbledore?" Harry questioned again in annoyance.

"Well I suppose you will need to know what all we could be facing if Tom decides against finishing this in a civilized manner," Dumbledore admitted somewhat reluctantly. He waved his wand and a glowing map of the United Kingdom appeared over the headmaster's desk. "He has control of Azkaban and its Dementors; sadly Azkaban is no longer a prison but a place to house the dementors between battles. There are no prisoners and only the controllers reside there anymore, all other residents have been dealt with. He has also managed to acquire the aide of a Giant clan that is numbered at thirty-seven members. He has an alliance with several vampires that are based in the Ministry, a mid-sized werewolf pack numbering around fifty, an assortment of hags and warlocks, another fifty mediocre witches and wizards or snatchers as they call themselves, and about 100 Death Eaters." As he explained the numbers of each group an area was highlighted to show where the groups often roamed. "With Remus's return I'm hoping that he can convince the other werewolves to stand aside and I'll have Hagrid return to the giant clan and see if he can't convince them to walk away as well. While they do that, you and I will discuss certain things and deal with other things that involve Voldemort and his immortality."

Harry shook his head in disagreement with the elder wizard's plans. "I'm afraid not headmaster. You're ideas of great climatic battles with wands drawn and fabled and forgotten bits of magic aren't going to win this war. Voldemort isn't going to play by your rules because you suddenly tell him to. What's more, I didn't show up after all these years to mindlessly follow you either. I've learned to follow my instincts since my school days."

"Harry, this is the way things must be. It is the way that has been foretold long ago," Dumbledore returned to his former student, trying to convince him that his way would be best. He ignored the fact that Harry already had figured out some of the basics of his plan.

"A prophecy then?" Harry said knowingly. "I suspected as much when you refused to ever take an offensive part in this war."

"Yes," Dumbledore said ignoring the disgust in the young man's voice as he waved his wand and a cabinet opened and a stone basin floated towards the table.

The wizard waved his wand over the rune covered object and a ghost like figure rose. "The one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord approaches ... born to those who have thrice defied him, born as the seventh month dies ... and the Dark Lord will mark him as his equal, but he will have power the Dark Lord knows not ... and either must die at the hand of the other for neither can live while the other survives ... the one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord will be born as the seventh month dies ..."

Dumbledore looked over his glasses at the unphased figure before him a moment before continuing. "As you heard, you are the only one capable of stopping Voldemort. You and Neville Longbottom were the only children born in the right timeframe. This Harry , this is your destiny."

"That's why you were always pushing Neville into training then after Harry left?" Ron noted from his spot. "I always wondered why you and his gran refused to allow him to join us in the Founders but had him going through all that extra training." He shook his head in disbelief. "You wanted him to act as your bloody secondary hero. Are you mental?" he questioned the headmaster.

"He is Dumbledore." Harry returned to his old friend wryly.

"Good point." Ron said in agreement after a moments pause.

"Personally I'm shocked, disturbed, and disgusted that it took only some five or six hundred people to take out an entire country," Harry said returning his attention to the headmaster. "Even with the fact that there aren't that many witches and wizards, your little town here is at least half the size of his entire army. I'm betting he never assembles them all at one place either, and that if you were to add in all your seventh and sixth years you would have more than enough to fight them. Instead you've all mostly sat around and waited for me to come back and save you." Harry looked at the man that led the Order in disbelief. "The knowledge from the prophecy would have also helped earlier by the way."

"Oi," Ron complained. "Me and mine have been doing our best to take out the supply lines. There just aren't enough Aurors to do anything more than that, and there aren't many others that will help us."

"Don't look at me; you know what I've been doing," Hermione said to the dark haired wizard. "I've either been training, working with you, or getting people out of the country. Honestly, I can't exactly fight a war on my own, no matter how good I've gotten."

Harry gave his friends apologetic looks and scratched the back of his head. "Sorry, guys. I should have known that you and Moody were out there actually doing something about the problem."

"You better bloody believe it," Ron grumbled at his old friend.

"I have had to stay here and protect Hogwarts and Hogsmeade," Dumbledore said in his own defense. "If Hogwarts were to fall, what would be the point of an attack?" He tried reasoning with the young group. "Besides, if it really bothers you so much, why did you not try to return sooner? There is also the fact that as a child and a teen you were never ready for the information." Many of the Order members nodded their heads in agreement. Their somewhat embarrassed faces, changing to self-righteous and superior smirks.

"Enough," Harry said raising his staff to stop the older wizard. "I don't want to hear about your failures or your excuses. The damage is already done; all we can do now is fix this mess. Ron. Mione. Let's go put an end to this mess once and for all. Alone, no one may have been able to end this war. But together? Well that's a whole different story," Harry said flashing his friends a grin. He turned around and headed out of the office. He paused in front of the blonde woman and frowned. "Someone has cursed you with the seeing eyes," he noted sadly.

"The last thing I received from my mother before she died." The woman said as her hands crept near her eyes.

"A dangerous gift; use it carefully," Harry told her solemnly. "Guys, let's go."

"Right behind ya, mate," said Ron as the pair moved to follow their friend. "Besides, with my team being laid up in the hospital right now, I need someone to go into the field with."

Dumbledore tried to stop them. "Miss Granger, Mr. Weasley, you are still under orders."

Hermione smirked at the man. "I graduated a long time ago, headmaster. I'm only here because Fawkes brought me here, not because I had an urge to come. Honestly, I didn't train to become the youngest female Fire Mage, just so I could listen to you."

"As a fellow Fire mage, I think that there is much I can still help you with," Dumbledore returned to her. "There are also certain rules that we must all follow, no matter what we may think or feel personally."

"You are connected to Fire of Life through the Phoenix Headmaster; I am connected to the Fire of Power through the Dragon. While our base skills and powers are the same, there is much that is different about our flames," Hermione returned cutting him off.

"As for me, well you're not the Minister or the head Auror," Ron said shrugging as he disappeared.

The others all watched as the group walked out of the office and out the front doors. "Padfoot, Mooney stay here and try and talk some sense into the people here." He then tuned to look towards his friends. "Come, there is much to do," Harry said as he began rising in the air.

"Bloody Hell," Ron said as he watched his friend rise without speaking or using anything noticeable. He turned and saw Hermione had created a giant ball of flame which was turning itself into a dragon. The girl leaped onto the fire dragon and the creature followed after Harry. "Merlin!" The boy exclaimed before waving his wand and summoning his broom to him. "Bloody showoffs. What's wrong with a perfectly good and decent broom?" he muttered.

After the group was gone the Marauders turned back to the castle they figured they would be doing a lot of explaining to the members of the Order Phoenix for what they had done.


	6. Try Someething New, Something Different

**Try A Little Something New, Try A Little Something Different**

Still owning nothing here folks Marvel own Dr. Strange, and JKR owns the HP characters. Shortest chapter in this fic folks.  
>Can anyone guess where the chapter name came from?<p>

* * *

><p>The trio flew in silence for a couple of hours before they landed on a mountain top. Down below them they could see unruly Giants lumbering around.<p>

Ron looked to his friend. "So how do we deal with this problem mate?"

"We don't," Harry said as he drew an amulet out. "We're going to try a little something new," he told them before he began to mutter for a few minutes, a moment later there was a crack of thunder and lighting and a large armored blonde man appeared.

"Thor." Harry greeted the large man with a respectful bow. "These giants are causing problems, and are working for a Dark Wizard. And since they are a type of giant I wasn't sure if they actually fell under your jurisdiction and all if not I'll deal with them though," he added, though he didn't sound to happy about the prospect.

The large man smirked, as he drew a large hammer out from his belt. "Fear not young mage, thine request be a reasonable one that I shalt be glad to deal with," the man assured the youth before turning away from the trio and lunging toward the group of giants. "When I finish with them, they shalt be reminded why it be smart to fear the power of the Odinson." The group watched as the large man threw his hammer at what appeared to be the Gurg. The large giant stumbled from the blow and soon there was a battle raging before them.

"Er, don't we need to go down there and help him mate?" Ron questioned his friends nervously.

"And mess with his fun?" Harry replied with a smirk. The trio watched as the valley looked like it was the victim of an earthquake as the giants were tossed from side to side while the Death Eater escort watched helplessly as their spells bounced off of his skin. Between the rumblings of the fight they could hear the distant sound of laughter as Thor battled the group of giants into submission.

"I always did wonder if his skin was as tough as a dragon's when it came to wizard magic," Harry commented, as he watched several red colored spells reflect back toward their casters. His eyes narrowed as he saw a familiar silver hand on the hand of one of the figures. Thor, unaware of the sudden interest, slammed a spell that the figure had fired with his hammer sending the spell back at the figure, lifting him up into the air and slamming him into a nearby boulder. Not about to take a chance with this one Harry waved his hand and several red chains wrapped around the figure. The wizard struggled against his bonds and even tried changing. The other two watched as the glowing chains changed size along with the wizard who was futilely trying to escape from his bonds. The sorcerer smiled as he saw the traitor trapped within binds that not even his transformation would be able to help him escape from. "Well come on, we do have other things to do today," the Sorcerer said with a smile as the others watched the hammer smash through a club that had once been an electrical pole.

* * *

><p>The trio returned to the air, dodging lightning bolts as they came down upon the giant. Soon the group found themselves hovering over the infamous wizard prison of Azkaban. The trio blasted their way into the prison and quickly blasted through the ten man team stationed on the former prison.<p>

"This is such a charming place. I simply can't understand why Sirius wanted to leave," Ron said dryly. "You got a plan for this one as well?" he asked hopefully. "'Cause I'd rather you did something before the other inhabitants show up."

"Yeah I got a plan," Harry confirmed, as he sat crossed legged in the air. "You two keep the staff here busy until I'm ready for them." He pulled a wand out of his pocket and waved it in the air and his Patronus popped out of it. Harry smiled as he looked at the stag that was the symbol of his father's protection. "It's time to try a little something different," he joked before he closed his eyes and began muttering an incantation.

Ron stared at his friend in surprise, as not even Dumbledore could float so effortlessly like that without first waving his wand over the required space. And despite all of his faults, there were very few people that could argue that the aging headmaster had power. "Right. Sure. We'll do that," he sputtered before waving his own wand and his terrier shot out. He looked over at Hermione who waved her wand and a dragon Patronus shot out of her wand. Ron briefly remembered when his friend had an otter Patronus before he sent his Patronus to join the guard formation of the others. He could reminisce about his friends at some later point, right now he had more important things to do than to wander down memory lane.

He didn't have to wait long as the wraith like figures of the dementors slid up to them. Ron shivered a bit as he felt the coldness in his bones and soul that they always managed to create. The three Patroni moved into an arrowhead formation, Hermione's dragon in the middle with Prongs and his terrier on either side. The dragon breathed a silver cloud of fire forced the dementors to back up and then Prongs rushed forward and began herding them farther away while his own Terrier nipped at the heels on the other side to keep them from running away. He repeated the spell and watched as his Patronus glowed with renewed energy before it began yapping at the dementors once again.

"Harry, mate? I don't know what you got planned, but I'd be more than happy if you were to hurry up and get it done with already," the Auror pleaded of his childhood friend as he saw Prongs was losing his glow from the inattention of his master. The Dementors were using the weakened patroni as their attacking point and were trying to overwhelm the other two silvery creations. Unfortunately for the trio, the dementors were slowly but surely getting ever closer.

Ron and Hermione were on either side of Harry their defenses barely glowing when Harry's glowing eyes snapped open. "ANIMUS! The young man said, finishing his spell and slamming his staff into the ground. The ground shook, and silvery spirit like creatures all began rising from the ground. They were a different shade of silver than patronus charm creatures, not to mention no person could have more than one patronus, they were like a cross between a drab ghost and a bright patronus. The various animals rather than driving the dark robed dementors away all seemed to latch onto the foul creatures. Ron and Hermione watched in awe as a round portal opened and the various creatures began to drag the dementors towards the rift.

The trio watched as the unbeatable creatures were dragged and herded through the portal. "Well that is definitely one way of dealing with the problem that they presented," Hermione mused as she watched the last dementor try and grasp the edges of the portal only for a giant silver gorilla to grab it in a nelson hold and lunge backwards.

"Yeah, bloody marvelous. Next time, you think that you could warn me when you want to try some sort of psycho move like that though?" Ron grumbled, as he reached into a pocket and pulled out a jug. He conjured three cups and passed out some chocolate milk to the others. This was a trick that he had pulled out by combining Moody's flask and the memory of all the chocolate that Lupin had seemed to carry with him. Hell, even Moody had been impressed the first time that Ron had done it.

"Well if I'm right, we'll never have to worry about dementors again; unless some of them managed to luck out and be out for the day," Harry pointed out, as he accepted his drink.

"Can you do the same thing to You-Know-Who?" The redhead questioned.

Harry shook his head regretfully at that. "No, it will take more than portal and animal spirit magic to deal with him. Besides it took a lot of my power to do that particular spell anyways. Portals aren't exactly my specialty in magic."

"You're saying Voldemort's going to be tougher than a bunch of Dementors were?" a pale Ron asked. His face turned slightly green, reminding Harry and Hermione of the time he was puking slugs. "And what is your specialty mate?"

"Seems I have some beast empathy. It's why I always did so well with creatures like Fluffy and Buckbeak. It's also why I have such a deep connection with Hedwig. I could connect with them on a whole other level." Harry said with a smug smile. "The Care of Magical Creatures practical's for O.W.L's and N.E.W.T.S were a breeze once I learned to control it."

"Cheater," Ron grumbled good naturedly.

"Mione, can you finish this place off?" Harry asked his other friend.

"Yes, but we need to leave." Each member of the group took off and hovered over the fortress that was Azkaban. Hermione began muttering and waving her arms around and suddenly the fire dragon she was riding breathed a harsh blast of fire. They all watched as the flames struck the castle. The fire melted stone, and metal while wood was incinerated. As soon as the spell was done, the fire dragon flickered and disappeared as it used the last of its fire. Hermione passed out from the strain of the dragon flame spell and fell as her dragon vanished.

Ron dove after her and managed to catch her by the back of her jacket. "Merlin, now I know why I'm here .It's to make sure that you two don't bloody well kill yourselves while trying to do all this. First its Harry needing a guard while he performs his weird portal thing, then Hermione needs me to keep her from breaking her neck in the ocean after destroying Azkaban. Anything else you want to do while we're back together?" the redhead questioned his friend sarcastically. "Maybe you'd like to find Avalon or raise Atlantis while we're out here."

"I have a friend nearby, we can stay with him until Mione and I regain our strength," Harry suggested weakly, doing his best to continue hovering alongside his friend.

"Shite Harry, are you trying to make up for the last 7 years all in one day?" Ron complained, as he grabbed his friend's arm in support. The trio quickly fled the remains of the prison heading toward the mainland. At the house of a friend, the man took them in and helped the two weary ones into bed while Ron was given some food. He couldn't help but wonder what Harry had planned next. In one day his friend had taken out the most dangerous pieces of You-Know-Who's forces. Without the dementors and giants to instill fear, he was left with only the dark wizards and creatures that he had gathered. Ron could hardly wait for the second round of whatever Harry had planned because if it was anything like today's plan then it was going to be great. At this rate the war might even be over in a few more days.


	7. Fire Maiden

Another chapter another claimm disavowing ownership of the Marvel and HP franchise. Do I really need to say anything else?

* * *

><p>The trio returned to Hogwarts the next day, ghosting their way around students, teachers, Filch, ghosts, Peeves, and Order members under the safety of Harry's invisibility cloak, just like when they were kids. They stopped at the closed doors of the Great Hall and the cloak returned to Harry's shoulders. The three each shook their heads in amusement at what they had just done. For a moment they had pretended they were kids again, if only briefly. Bittersweet memories of simpler times when all they had to do was save the stone from the evil professor rushed through their thoughts.<p>

The trio paused for a moment listening to the voices raised in argument coming from the other side of the doors. They couldn't make out all that was being said but that didn't matter; they already knew why the Great Hall's inhabitants were all so excited. Ron waved his wand, forcing the giant doors to slam open as the trio waltzed through them. They looked around the Hall and saw that the house tables were stacked against the far wall while the head table had been enlarged for all the Order members to sit around. As the trio entered, everyone froze as they watched the group enter the room. The trio stopped in front of the table their cloaks covering their bodies as they stood before the group.

"Headmaster," Harry greeted the joy in his eyes not present in his voice.

The wizard turned his old eyes upon Harry and frowned at the figure before him. "Harry," the man said in disappointment as his eyes wandered over the group. "You three were busy yesterday it seems. He said holding up a newspaper. The trio now noticed that nearly everyone in the room had a newspaper before them.

"The Prophet is still in business?" Harry asked, amused.

"Yeah, Death Eaters made them mad and they moved to Hogsmeade with a lot of other businesses," Ron explained as Hermione summoned one of the papers to her hands.

"Harry, you might want to look at this." The witch said as she passed the paper over to her friend. Harry hesitantly took the paper and began looking at the article. A picture of a shimmering number three with the three of them standing before it, in the top corners one showed a burnt out husk of Azkaban while in the other top corner it showed the valley where the giants had been. Someone had done a lot of work on this picture it seemed.

**BOY WHO LIVED NOW MAN WHO ROCKS**

Harry Potter (22) once the Boy Who Lived, has returned and on his first day back to the British wizarding world, he takes out Azkaban Prison with the help of his friends Hermione Granger (23) and Ronald Weaseley(22). That's right wizards and witches, the golden trio flies once again. The three of them took out the Dark Lords Giants and the Dementors and leveled Azkaban prison!

How? Well, apparently for the giants, Harry Potter called on Thor Odinson, that's right the Norse God of Thunder THOR. Apparently, the God of Thunder had been living and working with special super powered muggles called the Avengers in New York and has become friends with the Man Who Rocks! Legend has said that Thor was always a giant slayer, so who better to call when having a giant problem.

From reports of the event, the God very nearly sang with joy during the battle taking out over 20 giants, with his hammer and with a thunderstorm, according to an auror who was keeping watch over the giant clan.

The next issue the trio tackled was the dementors of Azkaban. Creatures that everyone knows are near undefeatable. Harry Potter had his patronus the now famous Stag, as well as the Terrier of Ronald Weaseley and the Dragon of Ms. Granger who held the Dementors at bay while he did some impressive magic that created a portal. Can you imagine his power?

For most of us just to summon a patronus is a major bit of magic, but to summon the patronus and create a portal at the same, his magical reserves must be legendary. Once the portal opened Potter didn't stop there, he created what looked like more patronus and herded to the dementors to it. "These unknown creatures are under investigation as possible new type of spellwork." Former Department of Mysteries member Croaker commented.

Ladies and gentlemen, I don't know if all the dementors were at the prison, but I do know that if any were they are gone now. Maybe forever, we can only hope.

All the while Potter was doing these impressive and powerful magic's he was flying without a broom, a feat of magic that has only ever been done by He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named I don't know what Potter was doing these last seven years, but it seems to be seven years well spent if he does all this on his first day back.

Finally, Hermione Granger, who it turns out is a Fire Elemental, used a dragon made entirely out of fire to burn the prison to the ground in minutes. The wizarding world now has something it has not had in seven years, since Potter left, it has hope if this is any indication. Welcome back, Harry Potter, we have missed you.

Special Reporter: Cat Writer

(For more on muggle Avengers page 4)

(For more on Elemental Magic page 2)

(For More on the history of the Boy-Who-Lived Page 7)

(For more on the patronus charm page 6)

"Well that's different," Harry said, as he handed the paper over to Ron. "How did they find out some of these things though?"

"Someone or something must be watching over us somehow," Ron replied with a shrug.

"Most likely using scrying stones," Hermione guessed. "Someone must have heard that you were back in the country and decided to activate the stones to watch whatever it is that we've been doing."

"I didn't think wizards knew about scrying stones." Harry turned to her in surprise. "Don't you have to surround an area or something to get a decent readings?"

'Yes, and the number of stones that would have to be linked to watch over as much area as we covered is staggering. They would have had to have seeded a majority of the United Kingdom. Still, they only work if you actually know what you're looking for, so this reporter must have gotten wind of your return and then activated the stones. With the amount of magic they require though, the main observing stones would have to be in highlt magical places like Hogwarts or on a ley line like Lord Braddock's old Lighthouse or Stonehenge. They might even be muggle-born since they actually know who the Avengers are," Hermione hypothesized. "Either that or half-blood."

"Yeah," Harry agreed, "not even American witches and wizards go to New York if they can help it so they don't know much about the various heroes that live there."

"Bloody hell," Ron said in awe at the thought of that much power in someone that wasn't Harry or the headmaster.

Dumbledore looked slightly annoyed at having been ignored by the group as they examined the article and discussed how someone knew the things that they did. "So this is all true then?" he demanded of them holding his paper up.

"Near as I can tell," Ron confirmed while getting agreeing nods from Hermione and Harry.

"I was afraid of that," the headmaster said. "We have been discussing the repercussions that are likely to happen now that you have so brazenly attacked Voldemorte's forces. While it's true that you have hurt him, in the bigger picture it doesn't matter. There is also the matter of the blood on your hands for so casually killing so many beings." Several people looked at them, either appalled or ashamed over what they had done.

"And are there others who share your feelings of trouble, knowing that the dementors are gone and the giants have been forced back?" Harry questioned as his eyes roamed the table. He was unimpressed with what he was seeing. Most of the people here were frowning or glaring at him and his friends. Evidently they didn't think that they had done correctly in destroying the threats that had been there. Some of the people he recognized there was the Hogwarts House Heads, Madame Pompfrey, Hagrid, Amos Diggory, Tonks, Kingsley, a heavily scarred Bill Weasley, surprisingly Draco Malfoy, Fleur Delacour, several other witches and wizards he didn't recognize, and of course leading them was Albus Dumbledore. "A shame, but your opinion in this matter is no longer of consequence." The group of fifty odd witches and wizards all flushed at the casual dismissal from the young man before them.

"Harry, do you not even feel sorrow for the lost lives?" Dumbledore questioned him sadly. "Has your time abroad truly changed you so much? Have you lost the ability to feel for the casual loss of life?"

"Blaming Dr. Strange for things you don't like about the real world, headmaster?" Harry said with a disgusted sneer. "How many deaths during this war have the giants and dementors been responsible for? Besides, I highly doubt that all of the giants were killed. They were probably taken away by a friend of mine." Harry decided not to mention that it likely would have required the Death of at least the Gurg and a few of his people before they would listen to what that the Thunderer had to say.

"A friend? This friend must be powerful to capture a giant clan and destroy their Death Eater escort. 15 witches and wizards that might have been able to repent for their wrong doings will now never get the chance. They shall never get the chance to try and fix the problems that they created because they were needlessly killed," scolded Dumbledore, as if the group were a bunch of first years that had just broken their first set of major rules.

"Wicked. When you add in the 10 at Azkaban, we've managed to destroy a good chunk of his forces already," Ron informed everyone with a smile. "He'll have to reinforce his numbers with Snatchers and creatures now."

"A quarter of his Death Eaters, and his two strongest creature allies," Hermione said with a smile. "I would say that is good work indeed."

There was a bit of muttering at that from the assembled Order. The loss of that much support would hurt Voldemort more than anything else had in the last five years. "At what cost though?" Minerva McGonagall demanded of the trio angrily, reminding everyone of the Order's vow of not killing. "They had a chance…"

"A chance to kill again and again because their victims didn't come from magical families?" Hermione demanded of the woman she had once respected above all others when she was younger. As the years had passed, the pair had continually butted heads as Hermione was more interested in dealing with the troubles while McGonagall was content to follow the headmasters lead. Their differences in opinion often lead to rather tense conversations that usually ended with one or the other reaching for their wand or storming off angrily. "They destroyed their chances with their choices. They played with fire and they got burned."

"It's part of my job to deal with problems like that," Ron said, shrugging casually at the group. "Besides, legally the use of lethal force was given to us a long time ago." His point causing Tonks and Kingsley to look a bit guilty. "Besides, with the falling of the British and Irish Ministries are there even technically laws we've broken? I mean what are we now that pretty much all the Ministries of the area except for his have fallen anyways?"

The two men turned to look at Hermione, "What?" the witch questioned her friends.

"Well, it's just whenever we need a fast answer we turn to you," Ron explained with a smug grin.

Hermione rolled her eyes. "Honestly Ron, don't you ever get tired of having me do your thinking for you?" the witch grumbled at the pair. The boys merely smirked at the witch knowingly. "Fine, I'd say with the fall of the Irish and British Ministries that we're now considered a Resistance force which means we need to use whatever means to take our home back."

"Did you even try to reason with them though?" Dumbledore questioned the trio, continuing with his aggrieved act while doing his best to ignore the conclusions that two were making.

"Does the seven years that they've used to take over the country and we've not killed them count, because I think it should," a belligerent Ron returned to him.

"It would seem that we have failed in teaching the three of you the preciousness of life," Dumbledore said sadly. "I wonder what your mother and father would say if they could see you now Mr. Weasley, or yours Miss Granger." The pair stiffened at that as if they had just been physically struck by a giant or troll. Many people seemed to forget Hermione's parents had been kissed early in the war as an example of what happened to uppity mudbloods and their families that didn't know their place. The Ministry of Magic had ordered the destruction of the Granger family. Hermione had gotten her revenge a couple years later though when she burned Madame Umbridge to ash. The Ministry official had led a group of purebloods at the witch and had paid the price for her crimes. Ron, on the other hand, had a vial of the memories of his imperioed father killing his mother, sister, Percy, and Charlie. The former Ministry worker had died when Fred and George had stopped him; the injuries that they had gotten from fighting their way out of captivity had nearly killed them though. The weakened and injured pair had left the country with only Hermione and the remnants of the Weasley family knowing where they were settled.

"And you seem to over value the lives of killers while giving little thought to their victims," Harry snapped back as his eyes settled on Snape and Malfoy, who sat hidden amongst the Order.

"Potter," the two men growled glaring at the dark haired man.

"Snape. Malfoy," Harry greeted the pair with an edge in his voice.

"They are professors here Harry," Dumbledore reprimanded the dark haired youth.

"Not mine headmaster," Harry said shrugging at the wizard. "Can we get back to the war though? Despite your feelings, discussing the real reasons you keep them here isn't something I care about. If I want to know why you have a habit of keeping greasy haired men around you all the time, I'll ask." The trio and Marauders smirked at the mocking suggestive tone that Harry used.

"Watch it Potter," Malfoy growled, rising from his seat. "I earned my place here, more than you ever have."

"And I hope I never have to 'earn' my place as you say, Malfoy. With the way the Headmaster is, I'm not sure what that might entail exactly," Harry said before dismissing the flushing blonde. "Now why is it so bad that we've cut their forces in half with a call and a single mission, headmaster? You said you're worried about the repercussions. Fine. How about you get out there and fight Voldemorte when he decides to come out and do his thing then?"

"My intentions when sharing the information with you, was not so that any of you would go on a killing spree, Harry," Dumbledore said scolding the group as if they were still his students.

"Sorry, I guess you forgot to tell him that it was 'Be Kind To Dark Forces' day yesterday," Sirius mocked the headmaster from where he and Remus had been watching the two argue. "The three of them did the job that only a few of you were even willing to try. You sit here safe within Hogwarts after your little spying missions saying you're preparing for something, but you never actually try to stop the darkness. You've become a part of the problem with the way your acting."

Several members of the Order suddenly looked uncertain as they heard that declaration. "Sirius, impulsive actions like the one from yesterday could rip everyone and everything apart," Dumbledore admonished the dark haired man. "We must fight this war carefully. I though you would understand thinking your actions through better than anyone."

"You've had your chance to lead, headmaster," Remus returned speaking for the first time since the trio had entered the room. He was also holding Sirius back from attacking Dumbledore for his remarks. "All you have done is lose more and more ground as you refuse to do what is needed while you play at being a leader and a general. You may not have killed directly headmaster, but are your hands really so clean of blood."

"Yeah, your hands may be clean of blood, but is your soul clean of wrong doing?" Sirus chipped in, twisting the knife just a little bit more. "Wonder what the dementors would think of how you taste?" the former convict questioned curiously.

"I am trying to do more than protect the people," Dumbledore defended, giving the Marauders a look of hurt and betrayal at their questions, near accusations. "I am also trying to protect our very way of life as well. With so few witches and wizards in the United Kingdom, we have to save every life possible. The loss of so many could mean the possible loss of parts of our culture now. Because you could not find a peaceful method in dealing with the problems you were confronted with we are now finding ourselves with more and more problems."

"Headmaster, we are not here for your condemnation or blessing for what we have done," Harry said, stopping both sides before they said anything else that might start a fight. "We are here to see to it that Snape and Malfoy deliver a message to Voldemort for us."

Ron grinned at the pair. "You ready to earn your keep in other ways than normal, Ferret?"

"Why you pathetic little Weasel," Malfoy fumed at the redheaded auror. "You think a couple of wins and your pathetic lot can suddenly take on the Dark Lord? He's much more powerful than a bunch of idiotic lumbering buffoons or even the dementors."

"Silence, Malfoy," Harry barked at the spy, cutting anything else off. "Tell your Master that we are coming. Tell him that we'll destroy his army, and when he has nowhere left to run then we'll deal with him as we cleanse the land of the darkness that he and his kind have created." Malfoy looked toward Dumbledore and Snape who both nodded their heads. The man rose from his seat and quickly rushed out of the Great Hall.

"We have things to do now," Harry said, he turned to walk out. "Marauders, it's time to fight with us." The two men nodded as they joined up with the trio, ignoring the surprised looks they were receiving from the Order. Several members looked somewhat conflicted as if they wanted to follow them, but they remained in their seats as the group turned away from them. Harry paused on his way out as he saw Hannah with a child on her hip. He smiled as he gently brushed the child's cheek. "I'll do my best for Nev's kid to grow up in peace." He then bowed mockingly to the Order of the Phoenix and swept out of the hall.

"As arrogant as ever, you should have forced him to stay headmaster," Snape growled, as the Order watched the doors slam shut behind the group.

"No, we shall let Harry run around a bit," Dumbledore said, soothing the ruffled pride of the Order. "He shall quickly come to realize that the road he is on will lead to his own destruction. I only hope that the others survive when his mistakes come to light," Dumbledore said gravely.

"We shall see headmaster," Snape returned coolly. "Running off to fight Voldemort like that is a very Gryffindor like move though. We do not have the resources to waste on their foolish and somewhat predictable heroics. Within hours of Malfoy sending his message the Dark Lord will reorder his forces."

"I know this all too well Severus, but we must prepare ourselves for the coming battle," Dumbledore replied as he met the gaze of the Potion Master.

"As you wish, headmaster," Snape said as he sat down, his mind already trying to figure out what order the group would assault the Dark Lord and his followers. The brat and his friends seemed to be focusing on his allies first, making them the most obvious targets at the moment. If he could figure out the exact way that they were targeting the forces of darkness then perhaps he could benefit from telling Voldemort, and he would destroy the brat and his pathetic little friends once and for all. "I should go and make my report to the Dark Lord. It appears that Draco has delivered his message," he said, wincing a bit as he felt a tingle on his arm from the mark.

* * *

><p>The trio and Marauders landed in front of what had once been the entrance of the Ministry of Magic. "It's noon," Hermione noted absently.<p>

"Yeah, it is," Harry confirmed, as he walked up to the phone booth. He smiled grimly as he and the others slipped inside and dialed the required numbers.

"What?" Ron questioned his friend.

"Just remembering the last time that I was in this thing," Harry explained to his friends. The others nodded their heads in understanding at that. The last time Harry had been in this device it had set him onto the path that had forced him away from the Wizarding World and into the arms of other types of magic users. All that had happened since then was because Fudge had managed to get his way and expel Harry. All of their lives would have been so much easier if the man had only bothered to listen to him seven years ago.

"Please state the nature of your visit," a voice requested from the phone.

Harry smiled as he took the phone. "Harry Potter, Sirius Black, Hermione Granger, Remus Lupin and Ron Weasley. Here to deal with a dark creature infestation within the Ministry of Magic." Several tags popped out at the bottom and the group chuckled beneath each of their names was one word.

_Exterminator._

Siruis chuckled a bit. "Ah, the irony of me walking in through the front doors of the Ministry of Magic to save it. Does anyone else here think that it's crazy?"

"The whole situation at times feels like bad story or something," Hermione grumbled back. The group tumbled out of the phone booth and found themselves face to face with several vampires. The creatures were armed and had the entryways guarded leaving no doubt that they had been expected.

"Huh, there are more of them here than I was expecting actually," Harry mumbled, as he scratched the back of his neck as he looked around the room in surprise. "I thought Malfoy's message would have had Voldemort relocating his forces so that we could do our thing. It's part of the reason we flew instead of just going ahead and making a portkey."

"Wait your saying that we could have been portkeying or apparating to these places but we didn't because you wanted Voldemort to try something?" Ron asked his friend.

"Well yeah," Harry replied with a grin. "I was kind of hoping to draw him out."

"You're bloody mental, you know that right?" Ron told him in annoyance. "So, do you at least have a plan on how to deal with this mess that you've gone and gotten us into this time?"

"Maybe," Harry admitted, as he strode forward and looked the small army of vampires over. "I am Harry Potter, student to Dr. Strange the Sorcerer Supreme. I am giving you a chance to step away from this war or become enemies with me."

"Why would we do that young one? We have plenty of food and power thanks to our alliance with the Dark Lord," said a vampire near the Ministry statue that showed a giant vampire glyph declaring the clan.

"Because if you don't, then I call the Daywalker and he comes to fight all of you," Harry replied. "How long do you think that your numbers would be safe if the Daywalker knew that you had a place like this? Knowing him, he would blow the roof off of the building for fun."

"Then we must make sure that doesn't happen little wizard child," the vampire informed him. "We shall have to destroy you."

"So much for talking," Harry said as Hermione waved her wand and a dome made of flames surrounded them.

"Please tell me that you have another plan other than that," Sirius begged the young sorcerer.

"Yes Padfoot, I do have another plan actually." Harry confirmed, getting looks of relief from all of the other members of their group.

"Harry, whatever you have planned you better hurry, this is only a temporary defense," the witch groaned out as the fire suppression system activated.

"And here was me hoping the fear of Daywalker was going to do the trick." Harry said lightly, as he drew his staff back out and began muttering a spell. Soon there were several ghost like creatures around them.

"Harry are these the same things that took out the dementors?" Ron questioned as he looked at what appeared to be a horse.

"Sort of Ron, they're the totems or spirits of the various beings of the world."

Ron nodded as he let his hands glide through the mane of the horse and his entire body glowed for a moment.

"Congratulations Ron, you have the speed and strength of a horse," Harry said with a grin. "You also eat like one to, but that's another story and actually has nothing whatsoever to do with the spell." Hermione, Remus, and Sirius each grinned as they ran their hands through animals of their own. "Feel the power of the animals," Harry said to his friends. "Remus accept the power and gifts of the Wolf, the wise yet savage hunter. Hermione accept the power and gifts of the Tiger, the hunter of the jungle, Sirius accept the power and gifts of the Coyote, the trickster, and Ron accept the power and gifts of the Horse, the charging champion." Each member of the group glowed as they accepted the power of the beasts within them. "Let the power be hosted in each of you for a little while," Harry commanded.

The flame shield died down and each member of the group moved at speeds faster than they were used to as they countered the attacking vampires. "Merlin, Morgana, Maeve, and the Founders." Ron muttered, as he found himself struggling with a vampire nearly twice his size and with more than three times the muscle.

"Yeah what he said," Sirius agreed as he held off an equally powerful vampire with nothing but his bare hands. "I think I'll add in a wicked, bloody hell, and a holy guacamole as well though." He then tripped the vampire and with a ferocity that he didn't know he had he grabbed the vampire and tore its arm off. The vampire roared and backhanded him into the wall. Sirius was shocked when instead of shattering his bones it felt like bruising from falling off a broom.

They watched as Harry was alternating between fighting with his fists and sword or releasing magic at them. His left hand was glowing with energy while his right held his elven blade as he fired several different spells before kicking out at a vampire that was getting to close. The others formed a circle around their friend and fought as well. Harry sent a spell out that attacked the vampires higher hearing while leaving the other unaffeted enough to do their jobs of slicing through the dark creatures.

"Harry what next?" Remus barked at the young man.

"Not sure," Harry admitted, "Voldemort must not have taken the threat very seriously. I also think that Dumbledore underestimated the number of vampires living here as well," he said as he sliced at the hand of one vampire, while he slashed with his hands creating several spinning discs that tore through several other members of the vampires.

"Well it would help if he clarified what he considers a few vampires." Hermione added from where she was fighting. "I thought a few meant somewhere along the numbers of 20 to 50 vampires. I'd say that there's over a hundred vampires in the atrium alone though. The witch noted as she released a small burst of flame into the chest of a vampire.

"You came into our home threatened, insulted, and attacked us humans. Now you shall die for your foolishness," the vampire leader proclaimed, as he urged more vampires to go in for the final kill.

The group also noticed that as soon as they killed one of the vampires two or three more seemed to take their place and that the stairwells and lifts were also expelling more and more of the blood sucking creatures. Despite all of the kills they were making, it was pretty obvious that they weren't going to win this fight in this type of fight no matter how skilled or powerful they were. "Try and make it to the entrance," Ron ordered the others. "Maybe we can get out of here."

"No good Ron," Hermione said, "they've got us surrounded." The girl swiped at the vampires who dodged the blow, but the flames that trailed her body still ignited their clothes.

"Well mate, it was fun while it lasted," Ron said grimly as he charmed several rocks to attack the vampires surrounding them. "At least we went down after hurting them though right?" he said somewhat proud of what they had managed to do in the past couple of days. "If only we could have taken old snake face with us as well."

"I'm not going down just yet," Hermione declared as she stepped beside Harry. The pair stared at each other and the sorcerer nodded and waved at her sending her flying above the crowd.

"Why'd you do that?" a confused Sirius asked as several slicing hexes flew from his wand even as he drove his fist into the gut of another vampire.

"Watch and learn," Harry told the man.

Hermione looked down at the figures below her and began chanting and tracing in the air with her wand. While Harry Potter had been training to be a sorcerer while living in America, Hermione Granger had not been idle in her own learning. She had studied at Hogwarts and had gotten the top scores in both her O.W.L's and her N.E.W.T.S. After that, she had remained at Hogwarts for another year and half and learned under professors Dumbledore, McGonagall, and Flitwick; becoming one of the best in all of their fields. When she had time, she trained her limited wandless magic ability until Dumbledore found her and trained her in her weak elemental gift. When she had learned all that she could learn in war time from her mentors, she had shouldered her bags and, with an introduction from Dr. Strange and Professor Dumbledore in her pocket, she had headed to Asia. There Hermione mastered her skills in fire magic, becoming the first female Fire Mage since Pernell Flamel. She was also the youngest one as well, since most female fire users were much older before they managed to gain control of the fires. Dumbledore was a trained fire mage as well having studied the art under Nicholas Flamel. But whereas Dumbledore drew his strongest flames from the healing fires of the Phoenix, Hermione drew her strength from the dragons. When she had returned, Dumbledore had been shocked to learn that his student had not followed in his footsteps and become a follower of the healing flames as he had. Rather she had embraced the raw unrefined power of the dragon.

The old man often tried to order the younger Fire Mage into doing things, but Hermione had not earned the title of the Fire Maiden just because of her age. She had become a skilled user of the flames and used fire in most of her magic. Now she was going to use those skills to destroy the vampires surrounding them. She finished her spell and she traced several fiery runes with her wand, each of the runes flew away from her and found a corner in the building to start burning. She then took a deep breath and quickly let it out. Flames erupted from her mouth as she turned in a slow circle making sure that she hit each of the runes with her flames, causing the flames within each rune to explode outward spreading flames even farther.

"Dragon fire," the vampire elder snarled angrily as it watched its various clansmen erupt into pillars of fire.

Hermione landed beside her friends and weakly collapsed. "You think that you managed to get this place hot enough?" Ron asked her, catching her in his arms while Harry raised a protective dome shield over them. They couldn't say anything else though as they watched the floor start creaking and breaking, the flames igniting the floor beneath them. "You always were a bit of an over achiever," the redhead admitted, as he watched in awe at the Ministry building going down in flames all around them. "Can we please get out of here now though?" he pleaded with the group.

Harry nodded, and with a few gestures, the shield turned into a round bubble that lifted them all into the air then punched through the ceiling and onto the London streets. Harry shakily returned them to the ground. "Run," he gasped before he rushed off. Unsure the others followed after him, Ron tossing a nearly unconscious Hermione over his shoulder as he ran. Once they got a good distance away, Harry nodded in the direction they had just come from. The group turned and saw the buildings that had been above the Ministry sink into the ground. The group turned and watched as Harry began waving his hands and muttering and then saw the street that had been above the Ministry sink into the ground wiping out the last of the enemy and putting out the dragon flames not content to stop there Harry kept on casting and a globe of energy sank into the ground there was a rumbling sound and the buildings on either side shookand crumbled filling in the last of the hole. A final spell and the street smoothed itself out, as he sealed the entrance in case any of the vampires or anything else managed to dig their way through the mess that had once been the Ministry of Magic. "Think we're going to get his attention now?" Harry questioned with a weak grin as he looked at the mess that they had created.

A huffing Remus looked up from where he was leaning against a pole. "Considering all he has left are the werewolves, some wannabes, and his Death Eaters, then I'd say so. It's almost enough to make someone consider allowing Dumbledore's crazy final battle to work out."

Everyone paused and looked at each other in amusement at that as they wiped ash off of their faces. Harry nodded before he tiredly pulled his staff out. He tapped it on the ground and the animal spirits pulled out of the group. "Spirits of the Earth, we thank you for your aide in our time of need," Harry said bowing to the spirits, which each returned the bow of the sorcerer before they seemed to disappear in a gust of wind.

"So anyone else ready to get some sleep?" Sirius asked with amusement as he looked down at the weary trio. The past two days the group had pressed themselves to their limit and there was likely one or two more days' worth of fighting before they would be done.

"Kill me now," Ron grumbled as he set Hermione down and collapsed next to the girl placing his head on her stomach. Harry nodded in agreement, and fell down on the other side of the girl resting his head on her arm.

"Ah you kids these days, you simply have no stamina," Sirius teased the trio.

"Come on, Sirius. Let's get these youngsters down for their nap," Remus joked with the other man. "Hopefully we won't have to change any nappies though."

"Bugger off," the three mumbled at the joking duo.

* * *

><p>As much as I would like to claim ownership of the Prophet article reviewer actually wrote most of it and allowed me to post it after I asked.<p> 


	8. Friendly Battle

I still own a grand total of nothing. Teach me to use a mail oder wand and magic lamp.

* * *

><p>Harry and his friends looked up from where they were hiding as Malfoy manor loomed imposingly over their heads. The group had prepared themselves for this fight for the better part of two days. After all the chaos and destruction that they had wrought, all of the United Kingdom had been waiting and watching with bated breath, wondering what the Golden Trio and the Marauders would do next. Reports of the battle at the Ministry had trickled in. England's vampire population, which had been the highest worldwide, had dropped so quickly and suddenly that the people were in shock. People could once again wander the streets at night without having to worry about death. Curious people had paid several goblin warriors to investigate the area and had found that the place had been burnt to a crisp as if a dragon had breathed over the place. The British Ministry of Magic was officially no more with its fall. Word had spread of the damage done to the place. The vampires had been reduced from several hundred to a few dozen, the remains of several hags and warlocks had also been found as it seemed some of the darker aspects of the magical world had taken to living together. Had the trio and Marauders fought their way through the vampire forces they would have ended up having to deal with the others that were holed up in the Ministry.<p>

That was the other piece of big news. The Golden Trio's return to action had awakened the remaining people in ways that many had been surprised about. Many of Voldemort's remaining forces were being struck down all over the country. Snatchers were finding themselves in heavy spell fire fights, the werewolves had been scattered by Oliver Wood leading a force of Quidditch players, and the remaining hags and warlocks were finding themselves under attack as well. After each attack a golden 3 was left hovering in the air similar to the Dark Mark and the newspaper article. The only ones that were still safe from attack appeared to be the Death Eaters, who were running all over the country to fight the rejuvenated people. With their numbers already less than they had been, they were hard pressed to get anything done.

A big dog walked away from the Manor and joined the group before returning to the form of Sirius. "We're in luck, they've only got about 25 or so Death Eaters and about 10 werewolves here."

"Good," Harry said as he rose to his feet. "Let's deal with them then." He raised the hood of his cloak and disappeared from sight. The others cast the Disillusionment Charm, making them near invisible. The group moved quickly as they took out the various guards as they made their way into the manor. They stopped though when they saw a large group of Death Eaters barring their way. The only one that was unmasked was a pale skinned woman that Harry had never met.

"You might as well come on out, Potter," one of the figures said. "We can see through your rather pathetic attempts to sneak by us. Then again what would one expect from a bunch of Gryffindors?"

The air seemed to shimmer as the group reappeared before the Death Eaters. Harry looked around the group. "I'm amazed that only one of you has the guts and devotion to show your face while wearing those outfits." He waved his hand and the masks came flying off and shattered against a nearby wall, showing the faces under the masks. "Hmm, some of you I recognize others I don't. Ron you want to help me out here?"

"Sure mate, there's Severus Snape, Bellatrix Lestrange, Fenrir Greyback, Antonin Dolohov, Lucius Malfoy, Draco Malfoy, Walden Macnair, Alecto Carrow, Amycus Carrow, and Augustus Rookwood. They're all the personal agents of Voldemort. Draco and Snape have always been suspected members though, this is the first time anyone's ever actually managed to damask them."

"You dare say his name, you filthy little blood traitor," Lestrange demanded of the man.

"I guess this means we know where your loyalties lie then Snape?" Harry said, as he looked the hooked nose man over one last time. He wished that he had the Eye of Agamotto to know what the wizard was thinking and what he planned to do.

"That you do, Potter. There was a time I might have believed in Dumbledore's plans but after over twenty years, I know better than to fool myself into thinking that you'll manage it. Besides, with your disagreements with the headmaster, you wouldn't have played his games anyway," Snape spat at the son of his long dead enemy.

"Nice to know what side your on then," Harry replied to the hated professor. The man was as disillusioned as they were but instead of fighting his own way he had joined with Voldemort completely.

Harry decided to take a chance and make sure that there was no other way with dealing with the spiteful man. The animus orb allowed him to see what a person's inner animal was and have a good idea as to what they would do. He activated the power of the orb and stared at the Death Eaters through the power of the Animus Orb. Snape was a nasty looking spitting cobra with nasty poisoned fangs, Lucius Malfoy was a another snake with poison dripping from his fangs, Lestrange was a rabid black wolf, the rest were all attack dogs merely waiting for the command of their master. Different types sure, but all they were was attack dogs the other three were the real dangers.

"Always knew he and Malfoy were evil, slimy, Slytherin gits," Ron said, as he grabbed his wand. "Dibs on dragon boy."

"Snivellus is mine," Sirius declared.

"I want Greyback." Remus returned, meeting the eyes of a broad shouldered man who flashed what looked like razor sharp teeth.

Hermione nodded as she looked at Bellatrix. "I've got the psycho," she declared.

Harry shook his head at his friends as the fighting began. In a mixture of magic and physical combat, they began dueling with the assembled Death Eaters. Despite everything though, some of them were rather skilled fighters. Snape, Fenrir, Lucius, Belatrix, and Dolohov stayed and kept going no matter what was thrown at them. The others had fallen down as they had tried supporting their more skilled members and died in various ways. "Can you guys deal with the rest of them? I need to deal with Voldemort," Harry asked the others.

"You go on ahead, mate. We'll catch up as soon as we finish up here," Ron said as he created a shield even as Hermione released several fireballs that zipped around the room before impacting on the back of Dolohov's cloak.

"Good luck then," Harry said as he brought the hood of his cloak up and disappeared from view. He waved his hand and the double doors cracked open. He stepped inside and saw a room that was a dark reflection of the Hogwarts Great Hall, a large table sat at the end with a twisted copy of Dumbledore's giant golden throne for Voldemort.

The wizard in question was seated on his throne, his red eyes glowing as he observed the young man that had entered. _{Harry Potter,}_ Voldemort greeted in parsletongue, _{It has been some time since last we met.}_

_{That is has,}_ Harry hissed back out in reply, as he glanced at all of the Slytherin banners hanging around the room. _{When we met last time, it was a school kid and a skilled wizard fighting. I got away because of blind, idiotic luck, and you didn't know that we had brother wands at the time.}_

_{Yes, but since then your wand has been destroyed,} _Voldemort reminded him with a mocking smirk, _{That trick is no longer open to you.}_

_{True. I suppose we're going to have to do this anyway, aren't we?}_Harry said, as he drew his wand, and the pair began casting spells at each other. Harry quickly realized that even with his advantages as a sorcerer, he was still just barely in the same league as his opponent. Using his wand, he attacked while his hand was used mainly to block incoming spell fire. The pair exchanged spells like this for nearly a minute when Ron and Hermione joined them.

"Hurry it up mate. Everyone is gathering outside. Seems that they're expecting some sort of show," Ron shouted at his friend.

"Then how about helping out then?" Harry ordered his friend. Before he could say anything else though, he was banished through a window. Harry crashed through the glass then stopped in midair, turning to look to see all of the people that had gathered around the Malfoy Manor home. It seemed that all of the magicals from around the country had come to watch the fight between them. Heck, he could even see the various members of the Order of the Phoenix with Dumbledore in the lead and the remaining Death Eaters as well. Harry idly wondered if he should have tried to sell tickets to this thing. He couldn't afford to look anymore though as Voldemort flew through the window he had thrown Harry through

"Looks like I'm not the only one with a few new tricks," Harry said switching to English, as he looked at the flying dark wizard.

"Indeed you are not. This just might be an interesting fight after all little Potter," Voldermort said with a sneer before the two began unleashing deadly spells at each other.

Hermione, Ron, Sirius, and Remus all charged through a hole in the wall to watch the fight. The group winced as they saw various deadly curses fly at their friend who returned with an array of piercing hexes, cutters, and reductos from his wand while his hand shot blasts of raw magical energy toward the wizard. "Well, he did say that we could help," Ron said as he leveled his wand at the back of Voldemort.

"Do not bother, Mr. Weasley," Dumbledore said from his place within the crowd. "While your actions are admirable there is the fact that with the prophecy in play, you are more likely to kill a bird than to hit somebody. No, this is a battle that Harry must do himself. If we were to interfere we could disrupt fate and be forced to do this all over again." The Order members nodded obediently with the headmaster, as they all drew their wands and leveled them at the group of fighters. "Hopefully Harry can perform the task that he is needed to do," Dumbledore continued, as he watched Harry block several spells that seemed to have a mind of their own. Harry retuned by creating a whirlwind that sent the dark lord spinning away slamming into and cracking the wall of the manor.

"Headmaster you can kiss my red hairy arse," Ron growled, as he elbowed his brother in the gut before he stormed away. Hermione created a circle of flame around her and followed after her friends.

"Looks like the kids are out for blood," Remus noted.

"Do take notes everyone. This is the way that a true Gryffindor is supposed to act," Sirius said proudly from where he watching the teens. Those that had been members of the house in question flinched at that statement as they watched the Marauder move to join the group.

"You could disrupt the prophecy with your actions," Dumbledore warned, grabbing the wizard by the arm in a last ditch effort to stop him from what they were doing.

"We'll see," Sirus returned as he shrugged him off and headed towards the fight.

"The whole lot of them have got a point Albus," Moody informed his friend, "its time that we stopped watching and actually did something about it." With this proclamation, the old auror stumped after the group followed by the other members of the Founders.

"And they all go so willingly to their deaths," Dumbledore said sorrowfully, as he watched the figures move forward. The remaining Death Eaters also joined the fight, forcing the Marauders, Moody, and the Founders to stop and fight while Ron and Hermione rushed ahead to join their friend.

Voldemort huffed a bit as he regarded the boy that was actually fighting him. If the boy didn't have that other magic Voldemort would have won by now, but because of it he was being forced to use more and more power to deal with the inexperienced dueler. "You shall soon be joining your parents, Harry," he mocked as he fired a crucio. Harry countered by firing a spell of his own which deflected the attack.

"Not today," Harry returned, as he conjured several blades and fired them. He watched as they were transfigured into birds which turned around and homed in on him. They were blocked though by a series of piercing charms from Ron who was firing from down below. Harry waved at his friend as he fired some more spells. Voldemort created a flaming spell, and waved it at him. Amazingly the attack was caught in the mouth of a flame dragon creation and absorbed into it as Hermione flew by.

Voldemort couldn't believe it as he fired more spells at the group. No matter what he did whenever he had one or two of them pressed against the ropes, the remaining member would do something. He dodged as the Weasley boy transfigured bits of debris on the ground into spears and then sent them hurtling at him. He didn't understand how it was that they could so effortlessly manage to destroy each of his attacks and seem to have a counter for each of them as well. Sometimes they even ignored the attacks coming at them, focusing on him while their friends deflected the attacks aimed at them.

"Keep it up," Harry ordered his friends as he fired a spell. "We've got him almost too busy to do anything else."

"I am far from done boy," Voldemort snarled angrily as he fired several spells at the two fliers who dodged and created shields. He noted while Potter created a dome of golden energy the mudblood girl created a powerful shield barrier. Some of his spells still managed to get through their defenses though as small scratches appeared all over their faces and hands. The Dark Lord then apparated himself to the ground, and backhanded the young Weasley several feet away. While they were regrouping he muttered several words and touched his wand to the ground. The ground all over glowed for a moment and then the ground seemed to tear itself apart as warriors began rising out of the ground.

"Inferi," Harry muttered noticing that all around the undead warriors were rising out of the ground so that they could fight for their summoner.

"Not impressed," Hermione said as she created small balls of quick moving fire that surrounded them driving the creatures back.

Ron ignored the creatures and fired a variety of spells towards Voldemort. "Don't get distracted you two, he's hoping to make it so we ignore him and he can pick us off one at a time." The other two nodded their head in understanding as their friend figured out the plan that had been set up against them.

The Inferi moved forward, but with only the trio Sirius, Remus, and Moody shooting at them, they would soon be overrun. Sirius shook his head at the various people that were just standing there watching as the others fought for the future of their country. Placing his wand to his throat he cast the Sonorus charm on himself. **"ARE YOU PEOPLE TRULY GOING TO ALLOW THREE CHILDREN ONLY A FEW YEARS PASS TAKING THEIR N.E.W.T.S, TAKE ALL OF THE CHANCES SO THAT YOU AND YOUR FAMILIES CAN LIVE IN SAFETY?" **Several people looked guilty and nervous but seeing Dumbledore remaining where he was they too stayed where they were. Sirius merely glared all of them doing his best to ignore the smug twinkle in Dumbledore's eyes. **"WHEN YOU LOOK DOWN UPON YOUR CHILDREN AND SAY THAT YOU WERE THERE THE DAY THAT VOLDEMORT FELL, WILL YOU LOOK THEM IN THE EYE AND TELL THEM YOU STOOD BY WHILE THREE CHILDREN RISKED EVERYTHING FOR YOU AND YOUR FAMILIES, OR WILL YOU LOOK THEM IN THE EYE AND TELL THEM HOW YOU STOOD SIDE BY SIDE WITH YOUR FELLOW MAGIC USERS AND MET THE HORDES OF DARKNESS TODAY? WILL YOU MEET THOSE EYES WITH PRIDE OR SHAME WHEN THE QUESTIONS ARE ASKED? TODAY IT DOESN'T MATTER WHETEHER YOU ARE A PURE BLOOD MUGGLEBORN OR HALFBLOOD. TODAY WE ALL STAND BEFORE THE DARKNESS AND SAY NO MORE, TODAY WE STAND HERE AND SAY ENOUGH." **Sirius removed the charm before he began shooting fire spells towards the various creatures. He would really have to thank the Avengers for being such idealists and giving him the idea for that little speech. Minerva McGonagall, Filius Flitwick, and Pomona Sprout were the first to step out of the formation of the Order of the Phoenix and began attacking with their own flame spells.

"Now is not the time for the final battle," Dumbledore pleaded, as he watched more and more people slowly and hesitantly draw out their own wands and began shooting spells towards the undead creatures. "We must wait until other things are done first. If we do not he shall merely return again and again."

He was cut off as Hagrid sorrowfully brought his fist down on the top of the headmaster's head knocking him out. They didn't have time to argue ideals, right now it was time to fight. "Sorry 'bout this, Dumbledore," the large man said, as he laid him down gently. "Watch 'im, Fang," he ordered his dog as he grabbed a tree branch the size of a full grown man's leg. He lit it on fire, and began swinging it as he moved through the forces.

"Look around you. Even with that trick of yours, you've lost," Ron said smugly to the dark wizard as they noticed the crowd finally coming out of their stupor thanks to Sirius's speech.

"Not yet I'm not," Voldemort snarled as he fired several spells at Ron. The redhead yelped and then screamed as a spell sliced through into his chest throwing him back and into the ground. Spinning he cast an ice charm freezing the young woman within a block of ice. He then turned to look at Harry with a sneer. "I kill you, Potter, this little uprising fails and I take control back from them; making myself the supreme ruler of the magical world in this part of the country. I shall be the ultimate power and I shall spread my influence all around the world, taking what I want while destroying what I don't," the Dark Lord gloated, as he considered everything that he would do once he had the chance. "Once you are gone, there will be nothing but victory from here on out."

Voldemort cast another spell and Harry raised his hands to block them crying out as it broke through his defenses and landed a large cut across his left eye blinding him. As the man dropped Sirius Black moved in charging as a giant dog while Remus Lupin fired an assortment of hexes at the figure. With a sneer of contempt he caught the spells on his wand. He twirled it for a moment and the multitude of colored spells turned silver. He then sent it hurtling back at the werewolf who was blown back onto the ground. The werewolf groaned as the silver spell began burning his body. Voldemort then reached out as Black came in close catching the great canine by its shoulders and hurling it into a nearby mound of earth. A yelp signified the force of the hit as the dog lay there.

"Are these your dogs of war Potter?" he asked with a sneer. "Perhaps you should replace them." He raised his wand to finish them off when several spells came flying his way. He blocked them and turned to see who had dared to strike at him. He was slightly surprised at who was facing him; it seemed the people had finally found their backbones as the surviving Hogwarts house heads moved forward. Sprout he banished away sending the dumpy woman flying, McGonagall he cast a different spell at. She gasped in pain, her wand falling from her grip as she was forced into her animagus form. He cast a cutting charm at the defenseless cat that was caught on the ribs as it leaped away. With Flitwick, he created a lightning whip and struck the half-breed, the charge blasting him away.

"Fools, none can stand before the might of Lord Voldemort!" he crowed, as he shot cutting curses at the weakened man who was hit several times.

"That's enough out of yer," Hagrid said as he moved in and swung his large branch at the man sending him flying into the air.

"Ah Hagrid, it has been such a long time since our school days and you released Slytherin's beast," Voldemort taunted his old schoolmate, as he halted himself in midair and then landed on the ground. Hagrid swung again but Voldemort sliced the branch from end to end. He then leaped back avoiding a trashcan lid sized fist, and conjured several blades he then banished the blades at the half-giant.

"It was yer doin'!" Hagrid growled from behind his raised arm, grunting as the blades dug into his limbs. "Then ya went and blamed it all on Aragog' when it was yer doin'."

"Of course it was, you pathetic oaf," Voldemort sneered. "You hardly had the brains to pull it off, but they just wanted a scapegoat and being the bumbling idiot you were, you were perfect." He waved his wand again and the knives twisted out of the large man's body. The man fell to the ground holding his bloodied arms.

"Not so fast, Voldemort," Moody said as he fired a blood boiling curse, an entrails exploding curse, a bone breaker, and a Sectumsempra at the dark wizard.

"Ah Alastor. It has been some time since we last fought," Voldemort said with a laugh, as he knocked the dangerous spells aside. "I always did think that you would have made a great Death Eater. Your skill with Dark and borderline spells were always so impressive. If only you enjoyed them when you used them, you would have been great and gone far." The two men exchanged a flurry of spells for a moment before Voldemort managed to finally break through the shield Moody had up. Before he could recast the shield charm Voldemort cast again. "Crucio!"

The dark wizard hunter cried out in pain as he fell to his knees. "I'm not out of the fight just yet," the man panted as he tried to climb back up to his feet.

"But you are, Alastor," Voldemort said as he fired another spell this one impacted with the man's wand hand destroying the entire hand. Moody cried out in pain as he clutched his damaged hand to his chest. "Yet another piece that you shall have to replace." Voldemort said with an evil smile, as he stared down at his fallen foe. "Dumbledore, where are you?" he shouted out, searching for the familiar purple garish robes and flashy wand work. "Your great and mighty Order has fallen! Are you now prepared to fall as all of your agents before you have? Come, Dumbledore! Show yourself so all may see my power, for I am Lord Voldemort!"

"Hey Voldemort, I hope you haven't forgotten about us just yet." Harry said, as he rose to his feet, a bandana covering part of the cut on his face. He was helping Ron Weasley up as well. A flare of light erupted and a wet, scratched, and panting Hermione Granger stumbled out of the remains of her frozen prison.

"You just don't learn, do you, Potter?" Voldemort questioned in amusement, as he surveyed the group standing against him.

"Well, Snape always did call us a bunch of dunderheads," Ron quipped, as he tightened his grip on his wand.

The feline McGonagall picked its wand up in its teeth and bound over to Hermione who took the offered wand. The girl smiled at the cat who then lunged at Voldemort.

The wizard was surprised as the cat actually tried to attack him and he reflexively raised his arm earning several deep bites and scratches. He slapped the cat away even as Padfoot weakly sank his teeth into the wizard's leg. Shaking the dog off, Voldemort slammed his fist into its face. He then turned to see the other fallen fighters slowly pushing themselves back up to their feet. Even the wandless oaf had his crossbow out and was aiming it at him. "Do you really want a repeat of what happened before, you fools? I already knocked all of you aside once, I can do it again."

"Not when we're all hitting you as one," Harry replied.

Hermione, gripping both wands, snapped the wands forward and two whips of flame shot out and wrapped around the arms of the wizard. Hagrid fired his crossbow bolt and watched as the piece of wood as thick as a first years leg slam through the thigh of the dark wizard who was busy fighting his flame bonds. The others all raised their wands and fired their own attacks. As the smoke cleared they saw a severely wounded Voldemort still standing. "This is the power you and the headmaster don't know and can't know," Harry said, as he raised his wand and hand which were both glowing with pure power. "The two of you have forced yourselves into being alone. See what the power of loyalty and love can give you." Saying that, the sorcerer/wizard fired a pure blast of raw magic at the Dark Lord.

Voldemort screamed in pain and defiance as his very magical essence was slowly being destroyed by the unknown magic. "This is not possible, I am Lord Voldemort, and I am immortal nothing can stop me," he painfully choked out in disbelief.

"You're not immortal Voldemort, not anymore," Harry returned. "Look into my eyes and see the truth." The struggling wizard's ruby red slits connected with the Emerald orbs.

* * *

><p><strong>Flashback:<strong>  
><em><br>"There are many things that I wish to talk to him about." He reached into a pocket and withdrew a large green gem. "This is the Soul Gem, and it has detected a shard of a soul residing within your scar. I wish to remove the blemish from your body."_

Harry glanced at Remus and Sirius, who looked uneasy at the idea, but nodded their heads in agreement with the request.

"You had best lie down as there is no telling what all may happen while doing this." The boy nodded as he laid on the couch, and Dr. Strange leaned over him.

The man held the stone in his hand while waving it over the scar. A few moments later a small black and deformed creature was visible to all of them. It tried to grab onto Harry, but some glowing force grabbed the thing away from the teen, and pulled towards the gem. The creature gave out a screech before it was sucked into the gem. There was a cry throughout the house, and suddenly the image of a ring, locket, cup, and snake appeared. The items reformed into copies of the creature before they too were absorbed by the gem the items falling down lifelessly to the ground, while Remus and Sirius each cast a cutting charm at the snake.

* * *

><p>"No, this cannot be. I am Lord Voldemort," the reptilian man said weakly.<p>

"What you are is finished," Harry said as he clapped his hands together. With his wand now in between, his hands fired a more focused beam of magic. A moment later the Dark Lord was gone. As the body disintegrated, the Inferi that had risen on his command wavered for a moment before falling down turning to dust.

Harry fell down beside his friends who quickly helped him up. A rumpled and woozy Dumbledore soon joined them. "Quickly, if this to truly be the end we must destroy Harry as well," the man said urgently as he began drawing his wand. "If not, then this entire mess will happen in another ten years."

"Are you speaking of the soul fragment that was stuck in my head headmaster?" Harry asked weakly but with a knowing smirk.

"You know of it then?" Dumbledore questioned, not picking up on key words.

"Yes. My teacher is the master of the Soul Gem and with it, he was able to destroy the soul fragments," Harry said with a chuckle as he looked down at the half drawn wand. "What were you planning headmaster? For me and Voldemort to die killing each other, leaving you as the victor of this craziness?"

"It was for the greater good." Dumbledore said nervously, as his plans were laid bare before the various fighters.

"Yeah well it won't work," Harry replied.

"And now we can work on rebuilding," Dumbledore said hopefully.

"Not with me," Harry returned, "I have to get back home."

"Ah Harry, but England is your home and needs you." Dumbledore tried to reason with the boy who even while punch drunk was being defiant of him. "The people need you here."

"I have other concerns and duties than the ones that revolve around a hidden society of magic users," Harry replied, annoyed. "You want to rebuild a world that creates dark wizards then do it without me. Half of the problems seem to have been your fault here anyway. If you had actually fought instead of waiting till the last moment, things might have turned out differently."

"Harry!" Hermione cried out from where she was kneeling over McGonagall's human form.

Harry limped over and saw with shock that the wounds that the woman had sustained as a cat were deep and long. "Professor," he breathed out as he knelt down at her other side.

"Did we win?" McGonagall asked weakly, ignoring the blood that was bubbling out of her mouth.

"Yes, professor. Barely, but we did it," Harry said with a smile as he touched her shoulder.

McGonagall nodded her head in approval on hearing this. "Potter... Harry," the woman gasped out blood dripping from her mouth. "I was wrong, and I'm glad that you and the others were here to remind us all what it truly means to be a Gryffindor. Because of you though I was reminded of who I was. I saw the world change and got scared, try not to let the change scare you. Always fight for what's right."

"We'll do our best, professor," Ron said as he and the Marauders knelt nearby forming a half circle around the woman.

"Thank you, Mr. Weasley." The woman then began coughing "By- the- way- ten million points to Gryffindor." The assembled Gryffindors all smiled as they watched the woman close her eyes. As they looked around they saw the battered forms of Flitwick and Susan Bones limping toward the motionless form of Sprout. The branch sticking out of her chest let them know her story. Former Hogwarts students gathered around the broken bodies of their mentors as they eyed the fallen head teachers sadly. They may have won the war, but they had also lost so much as well.


	9. Bugger Off, I'm Going Home

And now we come to the end.

* * *

><p>Harry remained in England long enough for the various funerals to happen and for people to return. Not wanting to deal with the people of the wizarding world and listen to their thanks and excuses Harry remained in the muggle world while he went from funeral to funeral. Fortunately Lady Jacqueline Falsworth Crichton, one of Britain's few superheroes who was known as Spitfire, the daughter of the original Union Jack and the sister to the second Union Jack, had been willing to open up her home to them as a favor for Dr. Strange. Dumbledore and others had gone crazy trying to figure out just where it was that Harry went when he decided he was done but had yet to find him. Harry had managed to cast an extremely powerful concealing spell that made the scrying stones useless against them; meaning that there were no more unauthorized reports on them somehow making their ways to the paper.<p>

The recently returned scarred Weasley twins had hobbled around various ceremonies and wakes doing their best to cheer people up, but the distant looks that they had at times let people know that they were still grieving over the loss of their family and the trauma of killing their own father. It was doubtful that the pair would ever be the same again. The reformed Ministry tried to convince the trio to all take new positions within the government in the time of rebuilding, but each of them declined as they had their own paths to follow and didn't want it to be under the control of the Ministry or anybody else. Ron even went as far as turning in his badge.

Harry had stayed nearly two weeks in England, but now it was time to return home as he had other duties that he needed to attend to. Part of his time had been spent arguing with a mutant muggle spy by the name of Wisdom who had tried his very best to get all three members of the trio to work for him and his agency. The man hadn't liked the fact that everything he had to manipulate them with was out of date and all he could do was try the civic duty card. He had tried several laws to draft them, but Hermione had countered with several laws and loopholes of her own from the Ministry of Magic that prevented him from forcing them into service. In the end Hermione had won, Wisdom had compared Hermione to an ex-girlfriend of his though as a parting shot.

Currently Harry was waiting on a landing strip with Sirius, Remus, Ron and Hermione. An Avengers Quinjet was waiting for them. Harry had a new scar over his eye though this one had no special shape to it and might be removable in time according to the various healers he had spoken to. There was nothing special about this scar though according to all of the various scans that he and others had performed on it and when he got home he planned on getting checked over by various other people as well just to make sure that he was alright. This scar was just going to be a trophy from a fight rather than the trouble his other scar had become for him over the last several years. Remus had severe second degree silver burns; Ron had the mark on his chest. Sirius and Hermione were the only ones that were physically unmarked of the group.

The group was interrupted as, of all people, Dumbledore appeared before them with a crack. The amused smile he normally wore was gone as he regarded the group. Since the end of the war much of the influence and respect he once had was now gone. People seemed to have woken up, and had started to take actions against the various Death Eaters not allowing them to buy their way out of trouble this time round. Most of the respect and awe that Dumbledore had once enjoyed was now spread out between the trio. His control at the school was also starting to wane since a Council had quickly formed to return Hogwarts to the way it was before the war had started. That meant insuring that the school was started back up at once. Flitwick had been installed as the new Deputy Headmaster; Hagrid had taken over as Head of house for Gryffindor, while Katie Bell was the new flying instructor. There were still many more posts to fill, but they would deal with them as they came up.

"Harry, we must be sure that there is no trace of Voldemort within you," Dumbledore said impatiently. "I will need to investigate you, your scar, and this Soul Gem in great detail. Such studying shouldn't take more than ten or so years. While it would be better to kill you, I agree that it's a risky thing to do. We will, of course, have to bind your wandless abilities until we can tell for sure that you are safe to be around. While we're doing that, there is so much else that we can do for the wizarding world though."

Harry shook his head at the man that he had once respected above all others. The man couldn't seem to grasp the fact that he and many others simply weren't going to do what he suggested. "Headmaster, I told you already, I am returning to America where I shall continue my studies under Dr. Strange. As a sorcerer and his student, I have first loyalty to the Sorcerer Supreme, not to a country that tossed me to the side when they found it convenient. I've played this game enough times to know that sooner or later something is going to happen to make them turn against me. I am not the skilled politician that you are, headmaster nor do I have any wish to join the game either."

Dumbledore scowled and suddenly he drew his wand and pointed it at the boy. "Harry, I am sorry that it has come down to this, but if you refuse to listen to reason then I must do this for the safety of the world. I am sure that the others will agree with me."

As he pointed his wand at Harry several stunners struck the old man. "Looks like my instincts were right," Moody said as he appeared, a silver hand covering where his own hand used to be. The sight of the hand often brought thoughts of Wormtail but word had reached the group that Thor had taken the weak wizard to Asgard where he served as a pet for the Enchantress, he might live six months if he was lucky. "Looks like Filius will be making headmaster instead of just assistant," the old auror said, as scanned his old friend with his magic eye before he waved his wand. Several items floated off the elder wizard. "Shouldn't have gotten so obsessed with Potter doing what you wanted Albus, I never would have managed to take you down otherwise."

Moody looked at the group. "Alright, you lot. Get out of here before the Ministry come up with a reason that you should stay. Maybe they'll want to make you headmaster now, Potter," he added with a smirk. As Harry and the Marauders climbed onto the jet, they waved goodbye. Moody turned to glare at the remaining members of the trio. "Well, what are you two fools waiting for? Get out of here now!" He barked at the pair. The pair grinned sheepishly before they ran and leaped at the jet. The friends all laughed as they finished settling themselves for the trip to America.

Moody chuckled a bit as he heard Ron Weasley question how metal could fly without magic. The new head Auror would miss the group, but figured they were better off together and not causing trouble for him.

* * *

><p>Alastor Moody sighed tiredly as he walked into the well kept cottage. The place was under the Fidelius Charm with him as the secret keeper. Within the confines of the house rested Albus Dumbledore, former hero of the Wizarding World, former Head Warlock, former Supreme Mugwump of the I.C.W, and former Headmaster of Hogwarts, who was reading one of his many books from the book shelves that lined the living room.<p>

"Ah Alastor, a pleasure to see you again," Dumbledore said happily, as he ushered the man in. "I suppose that you have what I want?" he questioned the grizzled man eagerly.

"Yeah Albus, I have them right here." Moody said as he handed a large stack of a mixture of American muggle and wizard papers to the man.

The old man dived into them and began hunting through them looking for certain articles. Moody knew just what he was searching for, and knew he could tell him but figured he could let the former headmaster do this. It was relatively harmless to let him search and kept him occupied. After Potter and his bunch had left the country, the wizard had officially snapped and become obsessed with knowing what Potter was doing and trying to force him and his friends back into the country. Evidently he had convinced himself that they were in need of his guidance and were all prime breeding stock that would help the wizarding world in its recovery. He was quickly removed from the public eye, which was told he had received injuries during the final battle and left it at that. Yes it might have been a lie but it was better that the people remembered a Dumbledore that fought for the people. Alastor had been forced to take the post of the head of the DMLE for keeping the man safe from himself and others but he somehow managed it all.

Hogwarts had continued on as if nothing had happened. A fact that would have left its former head in shock at how seamless his replacement had been. Flitwick was a good and fair man that encouraged the houses to come together. Hagrid was still head of Gryffindor, Sinestra headed Slytherin, and Penelope Clearwater was the Potions Mistress and head of Ravenclaw. Amos Diggory had taken over as Charms professor and Hufflepuff's head. Katie Bell remained the flying instructor. The Weasley twins, in honor of their family, taught muggle studies even if they did reopen their shop on the side. The most interesting of the new appointments had been the remaining members of the Auror Founders taking the post of DADA professor in rotations. Hogwarts was actually a better school than it had been since at least the days of the Marauders school days. It made the man wonder if that was when the former headmaster had begun to lose control of everything.

The grizzled man shook his head as he focused in on what Albus was looking at. A picture appeared on the front of one paper. 'DEFENDERS STOP DEMON ATTACK!' it read. In the picture it showed Potter waving his hands attacking some giant creature, Black in his dog form, Remus in some sort of partial change, Granger wielding her dual wands forcing another demon back with her flames, and Weasley was acting as support for the whole team. In the background he saw a dark skinned man wielding a sword, a fiery creature upon a motorcycle that some had called a heliopath, and a young blonde girl in demonic armor waving another sword around. Yes, Potter and his bunch had certainly come far from the bunch of scared and angry teens he had met years ago. As his cousin had told the boy long ago, Potter would do wonderful and great things.

* * *

><p>In Scotland on the seventh floor of Hogwarts castle was a hidden entrance opposite the tapestry depicting the attempt of Barnabas the Barmy to teach trolls ballet. This secret room had long since been forgotten of its true purpose, the last people to enter it having been Fred and George Weasley when they were searching for a hiding place in their fifth year. This room had many wonderful abilities; one was that a person could hide unwanted things that they had no use for any longer. It could hide all of these things as it resided in between time and space making it nearly impossible to locate if it was not searched for and known. Within the walls of this room there was a bust; upon this bust was a silver diadem. The infamous Ravenclaw Diadem that had been missing since before the death of Rowena Ravenclaw rested there. The Diadem had been hidden away out of country for centuries until Tom Riddle manage to sweet talk the Gray Lady into surrendering it location to him. Once he had obtained the infamous headpiece he had set to work making another of his many Horcruxes. He had hidden it within the halls of Hogwarts enjoying the victory he got from having his greatest enemy acting as a guard to his immortality. The fact that the man spent so much time and effort trying to learn and destroy his method of continued living. The old man always did like to say that Hogwarts was the safest place in the world. There was no reason for the Dark Lord not to make use of a well protected place.<p>

A pillar of fire rose up from the ground as one of the few beings able to travel between time and space appeared. A being that had the appearance of a red devil dressed in a ragged red cloak. Mephisto smirked as he entered the room. Soul Magic, it was such a temperamental and faulty thing. Many of the Horcruxes that the so called Dark Lord had created were pathetic attempts to create true immortality. The fool that had been known as Thomas Riddle had so much potential and had he wanted immortality he should have come to someone such as himself or one of the other lesser demon lords. Instead he had tried to meddle in the skills and abilities of those that he couldn't even fathom. Now all that was left was this small fragment of a soul. The being known as Death would pay him greatly for handing the remaining bit of soul over to her. Still there were other things that he had to consider. The Potter boy had much to make up for, had it not been for him then it was likely that he would have taken over New York and a large part of the world already. The infernal Potter boy had kept his forces back long enough for others to stop his plan. The least that he could do was to return the favor and make his life much more difficult. He wondered just what it was that this would do to a competent magic user and not that waste of power and talent. He disappeared into a new pillar of flame.

When he reappeared he was elsewhere and smiling he looked at the figure sitting in a chair. "I have a wonderful little trinket here my friend," he said, twirling the diadem around on his finger. "This little trinket is something that might interest you my friend. This will give you the final edge that you need to deal with your enemies. You will have the power to finally finish off those that stand" against you there is so much potential power here that you won't believe it.

"And what is the price for this power demon?" the figure questioned suspiciously.

"Why, simple, my old friend. All you have to do is to destroy everything that Harry Potter loves. This diadem will give you the push that you need to deal with him for good." The demon laid the bejeweled crown upon a nearby table and disappeared.

Baron Mordo looked the small crown over with interest. He knew the dangers of trusting the demon but he could also feel the power that was coming from it. Perhaps with this crown he would be able to finally finish Dr. Strange off. If destroying Strange's latest disciple meant destroying Strange himself, then who was he to care. It wouldn't be the first time he made the people Strange cared about nothing but collateral damage. He placed the crown upon his head and felt his thoughts become clearer as the crown worked its magic as spell theory that had once puzzled him now became obvious. He also felt the intriguing presence of the entity within the crown. With a few thoughts he created a psychic prison. Yes he could feel the power and together they would take Potter and the world. Laughing Mordo disappeared as he had much to do before his fight.

Voldemort howled in fury. All that he had done and become had been destroyed. Now all that remained was this lone Horcrux and even it was in danger as its power and his were bent under the will of another. He could sense the changes the Diadem was making in the host body and wondered what he was going to do now. He wasn't sure but he did know one thing: the two of them would get Potter and the world and then he would destroy the mind of this fool that had decided to claim the Diadem. Then he would take over the body. Even as he plotted and planned within the confines of his mental prison, he searched for ways to into the memoires of his host so that he could learn all that he could about this new world of magic that he had suddenly found himself thrust into. Potter's new found skills and abilities made more sense as he saw what this man knew of magic and what he knew of the rest of the world. It seemed that the muggle world had made several advances since he last took notice of them. Once he was in control, he would enslave the 'heroes' to his will and make them his soldiers, destroying those that he found little to no need for. It was inevitable, only a matter of time. After all, it was his Destiny.

The End?


End file.
